


I Found

by wildflowerhowell



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Enemies to Lovers, First Kiss, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Phan - Freeform, Phanfiction, dancer!au, dancer!phan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-20
Updated: 2017-08-20
Packaged: 2018-12-17 19:20:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 22,140
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11858016
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wildflowerhowell/pseuds/wildflowerhowell
Summary: Dan Howell and Phil Lester hate each other, and everyone at the Ida Gatley school of dance knows it. So what happens when the two are paired together to choreograph and perform a duet at England's most renowned contemporary dance competition?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> hey friends!! this is my first fic, and i'm so excited to share it with you. thank you so much to @enjolbear on tumblr for being my beta (at the last minute, too.) enjoy!

If there’s one thing everyone at the Ida Gatley School of Dance knows about Dan Howell, it’s that he hates Phil Lester. Even though they attend the same studio, the two boys are constantly competing. There isn’t a day where they aren’t trying to beat each other’s highest number of alesecones in a row, or seeing who could wring the most praise out of whichever instructor was choreographing them. They both have to spend multiple several hours almost every day with the person they hate most, and that doesn’t help calm their hatred for each other. In fact, the small-scale battles seem to increase in harshness every time Dan and Phil set foot onto the studio floor.

~

It was 7:23 on a Thursday night, meaning that Dan’s contemporary class, taught by Ida Gatley herself, was set to begin soon. (Ida personally selects the best dancers in her studio to be a part of her contemporary class. IGSD takes pride in the numerous awards they’ve won for their astonishing performance in contemporary, and she wasn't planning on letting her reputation be swept down the drain by a few less-than-perfect dancers. Her choice to allow both Dan and Phil to be a part of this class was not an easy one to make, but she knew that their rivalry would encourage them both to do their absolute best. Ida’s choice had proven to be effective.)

Dan fiddled around on his phone for a few minutes, opening Tumblr and reblogging a gif of a woman doing a beautifully over-extended grand jete, writing “ugh! goals” in the tags, even though his grand jetes looked practically identical to hers. After scrolling through his dash for several more minutes, he closed the app and checked the time. 7:32. Dan thought this was odd, as Ida never started class behind schedule. He took a step closer to a small window with a view into the room that his contemporary class was held in and peeked inside to see Ida chatting with none other than Phil Lester. _Of fucking course,_ Dan thought to himself, _He’s making conversation just so that Ida will like him more. That’s just the type of thing that asshole would do._

Dan then saw Ida look up at the clock and realize that she’d gotten so caught up in talking with Phil, she hadn’t started class on time. He watched as she scolded Phil for not notifying her that 7:30 had already passed, and when he saw the guilt in Phil’s eyes, he chuckled softly to himself. The older boy looked up at the window and glared at Dan, who smirked and thought proudly to himself, _another victory to yours truly._

Ida rushed to open the door and as Dan and the other seven dancers filed into the room, she apologized for the delay in an annoyed tone of voice. The black haired boy blushed with embarrassment and looked downward to avoid eye contact with anyone. “Right,” Ida hurried around, turning certain lights on and other lights off, “I’ll give you ten minutes to warm up and stretch on your own while I talk to you all about something.” A few people glanced around at each other, wondering what their choreographer was going on about. Dan went into his right splits as the owner of the studio began talking about whatever was so important.

“As you all know,” Ida was sitting on a bench in the front right corner of the room, her hands folded over her crossed legs, “ _Grasp,_ the annual contemporary dance competition that’s held at the Mark Jeffrey Theater in Brighton, is coming up in a month and a half. This competition is very exclusive and only the best dancers are invited to perform. Yesterday as I was checking my email I received a letter from the theater telling me that IGSD is invited to compete!”

Dan’s jaw dropped in awe as he heard a few _‘oh my god’_ s and a couple _‘that’s incredible!’_ s. He looked around at all the smiling faces and accidentally made eye contact with Phil. They both immediately turned their heads in separate directions. There’s no way in hell that they’d ever share a moment of joy with each other.

“Settle down, settle down,” Ida coaxed, a smile plastered to her face, “So. The theme of this year’s competition is ‘duets’, meaning that sadly, only two of you will get to compete.” 

Dan looked around once again but instead of seeing cheery, excited faces he saw disappointed, confused looks. Dan didn’t want to brag, but he felt extremely confident that he’d be one of the two dancers to compete. He’d won multiple contemporary awards for this studio before, and Ida seemed to watch him the most in class, barely ever correcting him whereas she’d give everybody else multiple things to work on. He wondered who the other person would be. He hoped it would be Indie, mainly because they’d done a duet together a few years ago. But maybe it would be Alex? He’s a great dancer too.

Ida kept talking, despite many of her students mumbling under their breath about how unfair this was. “You’re all phenomenal dancers, so to choose who will be competing, we’ll have a little competition of our own. I’ll teach a short dance; when you’ve learned it you’ll perform it as a solo for the class. The two people that perform it the best will compete at _Grasp_!”

Dan was so ready for this. He loved performing, whether it was in front of 1,000 people or 10 people. And if he was given the opportunity to rub his talent in Phil’s face, he’d gladly take it. 

The class spent the next hour or so learning the dance. Dan wasn’t going to lie, it was one of the hardest, most intricate dances that he had ever learned. Its quick, precise movements made the occasional slower (but still quite fast) parts feel like he’d just run a marathon without ever slowing down and he was finally able to stop. Dan could tell that everyone else felt the same about the dance, as they were sweating and constantly eyeing their water bottles. When Ida was confident that everyone had learned and memorized the dance sufficiently enough to do their solo, she allowed the dancers to get water and review the dance for ten minutes. Then it was time to perform. 

Julie went first. Her solo went fairly well (it actually went incredibly well, for fuck’s sake. Dan was just so used to being around award-winning dancers that even the best didn’t faze him). Fawn went next, her dancing just as good as Julie’s. After that was Arden, then Oliver, then Blair. When Blair finished his solo with the ending pose of a z-split, his right arm planted softly on the floor and his head positioned to look up at his right hand that was reaching for the tiled ceiling, there was a light round of applause. Dan clapped a bit and then raised his hand to signify that he wanted to go next. 

As Dan walked to the center of the room he could feel Ida’s eyes resting intently on him. He could feel everyone’s eyes on him, actually. But out of every dancer in that room, he was the most aware of Phil. God, why did he have to stare at Dan all the damn time? It kind of freaked him out sometimes, the amount of time that Phil spent looking, glaring, at him.

Dan cut off his thoughts about Phil and diverted his attention to his feet, which weren’t in the right beginning placement, a wide second position. Fuck. As he quickly corrected himself, he heard Phil snicker quietly. Asshole. He looked over at Ida who found the right spot in the music, Exxus by Glass Animals, and pressed play. 

The song played for a couple of eight-counts until it was time for Dan to start dancing. When he did, his movements were quick but they flowed together seamlessly. He did elegant turning stags and mesmerising double illusions and the difficulty of the dance seemed to melt away as the choreography progressed. When he did a calypso and rolled into the final pose, he heard the whole class, including Ida, erupt into an ovation. Even Phil was clapping, though it was still the same amount of applause that he gave everyone else. Dan couldn’t help but fill with pride as he stood up. He had proved that he wasn’t in this class for nothing.

When no one wanted to perform after Dan, Ida called on Phil. As the two boys passed each other when heading to their designated places in the room; Dan on a bench in front of the mirrors and Phil in the center of the floor, they exchanged a glance that was filled with nothing short of hatred. Dan could tell that Phil didn’t want to let him have this. _Well too fucking bad,_ the brown-eyed boy thought, _I’m going to compete at Grasp_. He took a seat and Ida started the music again.

Dan wasn’t looking into the mirror during his solo. But judging from the fact that the amount of applause awarded to him was much greater than any of the previous dancer’s amounts, he did breathtakingly well. And it just so seemed that Phil Lester could possibly be doing as well as him. Phil’s muscular arms worked to make sure that every flick of the wrist was perfect. His legs allowed him to leap at an incredible height. He was- no, his dancing- was beautiful. Dan could do nothing but shake his head just ever so slightly as the same applause that was given to him was given to Phil. _Well, shit,_ Dan thought. 

Indie and Alex were the last two to do their solos, but it wouldn’t have mattered if they’d gone or not. It was already clear who was competing. _No, don’t say that,_ Dan consoled himself, _Just because everyone liked Phil’s solo doesn’t mean Ida did. You have no idea who’s gonna get to compete._

At 8:57, when class was almost over, Ida spoke after a long silence of looking at the notes that she had taken during the solos. “When you come back to class next week, I’ll be announcing who will be competing at _Grasp_. In the meantime, please don’t stress out about this. You all did wonderfully. Have a good rest of your week!” 

Dan gathered his things (a water bottle that was now empty, two knee pads, his phone, his keys, and his bag that held all of the shoes and extra clothes that he’d need for different classes), and headed out a door that was bordered by twinkling fairy lights. When he was on his way to his car, a black 2007 Honda Civic that was once his mom’s, he heard a familiar voice call out behind him. “Good job, Howell.” Dan turned around to see Phil standing on the pavement near the studio, his barely-visible body lit by only a few dim streetlights. He’s not trying to be nice, Dan thought, He’s just trying to intimidate you. The younger boy left Phil standing there without a reply, and as he started to drive off, he looked in his rearview mirror to see that Phil hadn’t moved from his spot by the studio door.


	2. Chapter 2

“I’m home!” Dan slung his bag off his shoulders and onto one of the hooks next to his front door, alerting whoever was home that he was back from school. As he started towards the kitchen to get some food, he heard the voice of his older brother, Charlie, coming from the lounge. 

“How was school?” Dan could see that his brother was laying on the grey suede couch, watching TV. Dan gave a vague noise that suggested his distaste. “Caldwell can’t be treating you that poorly, can it?” Charlie laughed as Dan sat next to him, taking a bite from a leftover slice of pizza from last night’s dinner.

Dan could tell his brother was laughing at the thought of Caldwell Prep, the school Dan was currently attending. Charlie had graduated last year. Caldwell was referred to by the students that attended it as Cald-Hell, due to its rude and incompetent teachers, jocks that pretty much ran the place, and tendency to make the students want to drop out after their first week there. Dan used to have a fairly consistent sleep schedule, but it was completely tossed out the window and replaced with countless projects, essays, and reports that he’d work on for hours into the night. Most of the kids there were snobby rich kids who managed to keep up amazing grades, partake in at least three different extracurriculars each, and have a social life all at once. Dan didn’t know how they did it. 

“Yeah, school’s been pretty shit lately. I’m pretty sure all my teachers planned on giving major projects all at the same time just because they’re evil and they can.”

“That sucks, dude.”

“But it could be worse,” Dan said with a mouth full of pizza, “I could be completely friendless or something.”

“Oh yeah, isn’t Liam coming over later?” Charlie referred to Dan’s best friend. He looked over at his little brother, who nodded. “You don’t have dance?” He inquired, a bit confused. Dan always had dance on Fridays. 

“Nah, my tap instructor is supposed to have her baby this week and she said we all deserved a day off.”

“I see. What are you two gonna do? I need to know if I should get out of the house. Are you aware that the last time he came over, you two couldn’t stop screaming at the TV? You two were literally screaming. My poor fucking ears,” he whined.

“Hey, the Vine compilations we watched were really funny. You’d be laughing as loud as we were if you saw them. And to answer your question, we’re gonna go into town. There’s this bakery that Liam has been talking about wanting to go to for ages. “

“But is he staying the night?”

Dan chuckled. “Yeah.”

Charlie threw his head back in exasperation and let out an overdramatic sigh. “Fuck! I was planning on getting some sleep, you know!”

“Calm down, we’ll try to keep quiet.”

“You say that,” Charlie whined, ”But I know I’ll be kept up by your shouting over a video game or TV show or whatever.”

“That sounds like a personal problem.” Dan laughed as he stood up, having finished his slice of cold pepperoni pizza. “Liam’s gonna be here in about 30 minutes.” 

“I guess I’d better cherish this next half-hour before my peace and quiet is ruined.” Charlie frowned at Dan, who was now back in the kitchen, grabbing a glass of water. 

“Oh shut up,” Dan scoffed, “Even if he can be loud, you like him.” The younger brother caught the older one roll his eyes, although he was grinning at the same time. 

“You got me there. I can admit that Liam is pretty cool.”

As Dan started towards the hallway that his bedroom was connected to, he pointed knowingly at his brother. “I’ll be in my room if you need me. See you later.”

“See you.”

~

“Dude, I’m so fucking excited.” Liam stared out of the passenger seat window of Dan’s car, taking in London’s skyline with his dark brown eyes. 

“Liam, chill. They’re only donuts.” 

Liam looked over at his best friend with wide eyes. “Yeah, Only donuts with a five star rating on my favorite blog. Do you know how hard it is to get five stars on that blog?” The boy shook his head disapprovingly and went back to staring out the window. 

After a few more minutes of delving into downtown London, they arrived at Mad Batter, the bakery that Liam had been raving about since he read that blog post about it. After ducking out of the car, Dan looked around for Liam but quickly realized his friend was already inside, probably drooling over the menu. He had to give it to him, Liam really liked good food. 

The bakery was really cute, with fake tree branches hanging from the ceiling and marble tabletops and cases full of macarons, croissants, and (to Liam’s excitement) rows and rows of donuts. Seriously, there were so many different donuts, Dan had no idea how he’d be able to choose which one to get. After a few minutes of looking over the selection, he settled on a simple custard filled donut, while Liam chose to go for the peanut butter and dark chocolate flavored donut. After paying for their desserts, the two best friends sat down at a table for two that was tucked away in one of the bakery’s corners. Dan watched as Liam bit into his pastry and he could have sworn he saw the other boy roll his eyes back with delight.

“This is so fucking good, I think I just came.” 

“Oh fuck off! I’m about to eat, you can’t say that.” Dan reached over the table to slap Liam’s arm. 

“Once you try yours, you’ll see what I mean.”

Dan rolled his eyes and lifted his donut off the plate, making sure to get some of the custard when he took a bite. He started to chew, and suddenly understood why this place has five stars. “Damn, that’s the best thing I’ve ever eaten.”

“Right?” Liam said in between bites. 

The two boys ate their desserts in silence, not wanting any distractions from the glorious donuts they were eating. Once they were done, they began talking again.

“Coming here was a really good idea.” Dan looked gratefully at his best friend.

“No shit, Sherlock.” Liam’s freckled face broke into a grin, his eyes crinkling at the edges. “What do you wanna do now?”

Dan gestured vaguely, unsure. “How about we just walk around and see what we find?”

“Sounds good to me,” Liam said while standing up from his seat in the turquoise chair, “Let’s go.”

The boys walked around aimlessly for a while. When they found themselves in Hyde Park, they decided to visit the rose gardens. Dan insisted on it. The sky was turning a beautiful shade of gold, and it cast a lovely filter over every flower. The friends ambled around, smelling all the different types of roses and taking in the scenery. Being here made Dan very glad that he didn’t have to go to tap class that night. He sat down on a bench in the middle of the garden, patting the seat next to him so that Liam would follow suit. 

“Why don’t we do this more often?” Liam asked, still looking out at all the flowers.

“Because we spend all our time watching dumb YouTube videos and playing horror games.”

“Well I guess that’s pretty fun. But we should try to actually go outside more than just stepping out to get a pizza we’ve ordered.” Liam snickered. He went back into silence, and Dan could see that something had caught his friend’s eye. “Hey isn’t that...”

“What?” Dan questioned, not seeing anything at first. But then, as he adjusted his gaze to look further away, he caught sight of a group of about five boys. One of which was a tall figure with straight black hair. “You’re fucking kidding me,” Dan said, all life drained from his voice, “This actually has to be a joke.” Getting away from Phil was one of the reasons he was so excited to get the day off from dancing, so it was only fitting that his rival had to show up and ruin his night. He looked over at his companion, who was trying to keep himself from letting out a laugh. “This isn’t funny!”

“Yeah, but you do have to admit, this is the biggest coincidence to happen in the history of like, ever.”

“Well,” Dan said while standing up from the bench, “We should go before they come over here.”

“Agreed.” Liam had only seen Phil for very brief periods of time at Dan’s shows, but he’d heard enough ranting about the boy to memorize who he was when seen in a group of dancers onstage. The absence of colourful lights and costumes made Liam unsure of whether it really was Phil in the group, but once he neared the two best friends, his suspicion was turned into assurance. 

As the two boys tried to discreetly escape the garden, Dan heard the voice that he feared he would hear. “Dan? Is that you? What a coincidence!” The disembodied voice exclaimed with false excitement. Dan pivoted around despite Liam’s suggestion to keep walking forward. 

“What do you want, you prick?” The brown haired boy crossed his arms over his chest as the other four boys that were accompanying Phil laughed and playfully punched their friend’s arms.

“Yeah, prick.”

 

“What do you want, prick?”

“C’mon Phil, what do you want?”

“Ha!”

“Shut up, guys,” Phil commanded.

“Ooooh, he’s mad now, isn’t he!”

“All I want is to enjoy this nice evening with my friends, I can assume you feel the same?” Phil gave Dan a condescending smile. Dan wanted to punch him in the throat. 

“Yeah, I do. So I’d appreciate it if you left.”

“Oh, I wasn’t aware you had to have a reservation to be here, were you guys aware of this?” He briefly turned his head to look at his friends with feigned confusion, then turned back to look at the other dancer. 

“Fuck off, Phil.” Dan started to lower his arms from their placement near his chest, balling up his fists. Liam, noticing this, touched his friend’s shoulder lightly, shaking his head. 

“Oh, I’ve been meaning to ask you, aren’t you just so excited to hear who’ll be competing at _Grasp_ with me?”

“You and I both know that I’ll be the one going to _Grasp_ ,” Dan hissed, “Thank you very much.” He watched as one of Phil’s friends tapped his shoulder, pouting. Dan guessed that this was to show they were bored of this quarrel and were ready to move on to something new.

“Well, I guess we’ll just have to see about that, now won’t we? See you soon!” And with that, Phil and his friends walked past Dan and Liam, clearly making sure to bump into Dan’s shoulder while doing so. 

Liam waited a few seconds after the group of boys was out of earshot until he spoke. “We should probably just head back to your place now, right?”

Dan sighed and looked over at his friend gratefully. “Where would I be without you?”

“Jail, most likely. I saw the way you balled up your fists just now.”

Dan laughed. “You’re probably right.” 

“Oh honey,” Liam said as they started walking away from the rose garden, “I _am_ right.”

“That’s not true! I have more self-control than you think I do.”

“So you’re telling me you wouldn’t have punched Phil just then?”

“Well, maybe…. Okay, yeah, I’d be in jail without you.” Dan burst into a fit of laughter as they continued down the path, their voices fading into the sounds of the city.


	3. Chapter 3

It was 8:48 pm and Dan was driving alone down a neighbourhood street. He was on his way to a party (“Dan!” His friend Sarah had exclaimed when she heard that he didn’t have dance for once, “You’re telling me that you’re free on a Friday night? Oh my god you have to come to my friend’s house party!”), but he made sure to drive slowly. He wanted to be able to think without having his thoughts interrupted by a song blasting over the speakers in a studio. 

As he passed rows of houses that were strung together like charms on a necklace, Dan let the previous night’s events replay in his head. 

~

Dan wasn’t sure why he had felt so surprised when Ida announced that he would be competing at _Grasp_ with Phil. He’d seen it coming from a mile away, but he tried convincing himself that he’d go to the competition with someone else so much that he almost started to believe himself. 

Ida had told the two boys to see her after class. Not wanting to spend any more time with Phil than he already had to, Dan groaned. When he looked over at the other boy, Phil was just staring at his feet. 

After class was over and all of the dancers were sweaty and had acquired at least three new bruises to add to their constantly-growing collection, Dan and Phil made their way to the benches. Once the last person had left the room (“See you guys next week!”, “See you, Alex.”), Ida made her way over to the two boys. “You can sit closer than that, you know,” Ida reminded them after noticing the ten feet separating the dancers. Dan looked over at the other competitor with pursed lips but neither of them moved. Ida sighed.

“So. I chose both of you to compete at _Grasp_ because your performance in this class is outstanding. However, your behavior towards each other isn’t. I know that you might not be friends, and that’s fine, but I want you to know that I truly believe that you two can work together to create a dance that-”

“ _What?_ Did you just say you want us to create a dance? As in you aren’t gonna choreograph it _for_ us?” Dan sputtered, shocked. 

“Well… yes. I think that for your dance to be one that you feel completely comfortable performing, you need to collaborate and choreograph it yourselves.”

“But we love your style of dance!” Both Ida and Phil raised an eyebrow at the word ‘we’, “If we perform one of _your_ dances, we’re sure to win.”

“Dan, I’ve seen your choreography. It’s amazing. And I’ve also seen Phil’s, which is equally as incredible. Please. Create a dance together. Just this once.” Even though she was asking for the two boys to cooperate, her tone of voice hinted that she knew she wasn’t losing this battle and the boys had no choice.

Phil remained silent, but Dan still had more questions. “So we have to do… _everything_ together? Like song and costume choice?” Ida nodded. 

“Unless you really don’t want to work together. I can always choose someone el-”

“No.” Phil finally spoke, “Dan c’mon. We have to do this.” Phil was annoyed. Angry? Maybe not (Dan wasn’t sure why, because _he_ sure was.) But it was obvious that Phil thought Dan was acting immature, selfish. The younger boy sighed in defeat.

“Fine.”

~

Dan only had a vague idea of where he was going, but when he came across a tall brick house with loud music exploding from every wall, he knew he was in the right place. He parked his car a few houses away and walked up to where the party was being held. He was about to knock on the front door, but then he realized that this was a party and he could walk right in. _God, you need to get out more._ He walked inside to see clusters of people that were drinking and dancing and talking. He ventured further into the rooms of the house in search of Sarah but it took a while to spot her as there were tons of people milling about. 

“Sarah, hey!”

“Dan!” The redhead leaned in to give Dan a hug, “It’s so good to see you.”

“You saw me just the other day.”

“Yeah, but I haven’t seen you at a party until today.”

“Whatever,” Dan chuckled, “What are you up to?”

“Uh… partying? God, you really don’t know how to do anything other than dance, do you?”

“Hey! I do other stuff! I just…spend most of my time dancing…”

Dan watched as a grin unfolded on Sarah’s face. When she told him to go socialize with people other than her, he cautiously obliged. He slowly made his way to the kitchen to get a drink and maybe run into someone who’d want to talk to him. When he got to the white tiled room with black cabinets and marble countertops, he immediately walked over to the sink, which was filled with various drinks cooled by ice. The boy contemplated his options before choosing a root beer. Not very bold of him, but he couldn’t risk getting even the slightest bit drunk the day before he had dance again.

Dan gulped down a bit of the carbonated drink and looked around in hopes of seeing someone else who looked like they had no one to talk to. He quickly figured out that all of these people knew each other, as no one was alone. Feeling discouraged, he made his way to what appeared to be the back patio. There, he could further collect his thoughts about the recent and upcoming events involving a certain hated dancer. Dan found the back door and exited the house.

As he sat down on the top wooden step of a short staircase that led to a garden, Dan noticed a man standing alone in the grass below him. Finally, someone he could talk to! 

“Hey!” Dan could tell he’d slightly startled the man when he jumped and quickly turned his head.

“Oh, um, hi.”

“I’m Dan. You?”

“Aiden.”

“Come sit!” Dan patted the wood panel next to him, he didn’t like talking to people that far away from him. As Aiden (who appeared to be around the same age as Dan) drew closer, his light blue-grey eyes became more and more vivid. “Is that your natural eye color?” 

“No,” Said Aiden, who was now also sitting on the top step, “They’re contacts. A fashion statement I guess.” He let out a faint laugh, and Dan could see why Aiden had chosen that color. They complimented his dark skin in a way that was both striking and inviting at the same time.

“What brings you here?” Aiden asked.

“A friend invited me.”

“I just needed to get out of the house.” The two boys laughed together for a few seconds, then quieted back down. Their conversation continued for a good seven minutes or so before the topic turned to career paths. Aiden divulged that he worked at a security system company as a salesman, and then asked Dan what he did for a living.

“Well, I don’t really have much time for a job.”

“Is that because you’re still in school?”

“Actually it’s because I’m pretty much constantly at my dance studio. Today was one of my rare days off.”

“Wait. You dance?”

“Yep.”

“Like… hip hop?’”

“That as well as ballet, jazz, contemporary. The list goes on and on.” Dan laughed modestly.

“Hm. Interesting.”

“How so?”

“Well, dance is more of a feminine thing, right? So like, it’s kinda gay that you’re a dancer.”

Dan choked a bit on the remaining root beer left in his can. “Excuse me?”

“Dude I mean if it’s your choice to be gay then whatev-”

“Are you fucking kidding me? First off, no, male dancers are not all gay. Secondly, no one can _choose_ their sexuality.”

“Bro, chill. I just think it’s not that manly for a guy to dance, that’s all.”

“Not that _manly?_ God, your masculinity really is fragile, isn’t it!” Dan was sick of all the comments he got about being a guy dancer. Was the concept really that hard to grasp?

“What did you just say? You’d better fucking take that back, asshole.”

“Dan? What’s going on?” Sarah emerged from the house, leaning out of the sliding glass door. She had a beer in her hand and her dark red lipstick was a bit smudged. 

“This guy’s just being a dick, that’s all.” Dan glared at Aiden and stormed off back into the house, wanting to get as far away as possible.

He shouldn’t even have come to the party. He should've just stayed at home and rested. But right now, Dan couldn’t rest. He was too angry. He needed to move. So he walked out of the house to his car and started driving. He didn’t think to much about where he was actually going. But he knew where he’d end up. After five minutes of driving, Dan was in front of IGSD. 

The parking lot was empty, so Dan parked right in front of the entrance. He unlocked the door (Ida trusted his enough to give him a key), walked inside, and turned on a light. He contemplated which room to go into, but ended up choosing the room that his contemporary class is held in. He turned on the fairy lights that wrapped around the tops of the walls and plugged his phone into the speakers, scrolling through his music library for a few minutes and then deciding to play Oh Wonder’s first album, choosing to listen to _Lose It._

The boy walked to the center of the floor and started to stretch; just because he wasn’t in class doesn’t mean he didn’t need to warm his muscles up. The warm-up consisted of jumping jacks, lunges, left and right side stretches, most of the usual things he did in his classes. The stretching only lasted through three songs, Dan really just wanted to get to dancing. Maybe he’d even be able to choreograph some of the dance that he and Phil would perform? 

As _Body Gold_ ended and _Dazzle_ started to play, Dan started to move around the room, getting a feel for the music. He began turning and jumping and soon enough he was lost. It was like the studio vanished and he was in a world of his own. He had no one to inspect and comment on his every move. He didn’t have Phil to compete against. It was just him. Pure, genuine Dan. 

The dancer was pulled out of his trance when the song ended, but another immediately started to play. Dan usually didn’t dance to this kind of music, but sometimes he just wanted to be able to dance to something less intense. A couple more songs played, and Dan became a different dancer with each one. His movements slowed, then sped up, then slowed again. The dimly lit room became his world again, he could dance for only himself, he could-

“Are you choreographing?”

 _What?_ Dan stopped mid pencil turn and swivelled around to look at who was talking to him, even though he already knew.

“Phil,” Dan said flatly, “What are _you_ doing here?”

The older boy looked slightly aggravated, but answered anyway. “Well I was hoping to come here to choreograph some of the dance, but it looks like you’re already doing that. Mind showing me what you’ve come up with so far?”

“Um, I wasn’t choreographing. I was just doing some… improv.” Dan looked suspiciously at Phil. Why wasn’t he demanding that he have the room to himself, doing some perfect firebird leap just to show off or whatever? 

“You haven’t started any choreography? Grasp is in one month and this dance has to be absolutely perfect! Jesus Christ, Dan.”

“How am I supposed to know what kind of choreography to do when we haven’t even chosen a song to dance to yet?” Dan sneered.

“Fine! You wanna choose a song? Let’s choose a song then.”


	4. Chapter 4

_Skip. Skip. Listen for 33 seconds, skip._

“This is going nowhere.”

“We’ll find one eventually, be patient for once!”

“For once? What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Never mind. Here, play this one.” 

Dan and Phil had been going through their entire music collection for a good 25 minutes now, but they hadn’t been able to find anything they could both agree on (“What about this song?”, “The lyrics are horrible. Listen to this one.”, “Reminds me too much of The Imperial March.”, “This sounds nothing like The Imperial March.”) It was currently 9:53 pm and Dan just wanted to get this over with so he could go home, but he also didn’t want to rush it and choose a song he didn’t like. 

“Okay, how about we go to a Spotify radio station?” Dan suggested, “We might find something we’ve never heard.” 

“Alright.” Phil sighed and went to the Spotify app on his phone. “What station?” 

Dan thought back to the music he was listening to when Phil so kindly interrupted him. “Oh Wonder?” He watched as Phil started a new radio station on his phone. He skipped through a few songs they’d already heard, then stopped skipping when he saw an unfamiliar song appear on the screen. I Found by Amber Run. It started off simple, just a few notes played on a piano. Then a man’s voice started singing, his voice complementing the piano perfectly. Then, after three minutes or so, the melody got more intricate, if you could even call it that. The song was continuously simple, but it maintained an obvious beat provided by a drum. It was beautiful. The lyrics were that of a love song, but it didn’t matter. It was exactly what the two dancers needed. 

“This is….” Phil started.

“Gorgeous.” Dan finished the older boy’s sentence.

“Yeah.”

“Well, I guess we found our song. We can start choreographing soon. You have my number, right?” Dan already knew that Phil had his number; they’d been dancing together for so long, it would be impossible for them _not_ to have each other’s numbers. But he had to make it seem like he might not have Phil’s (which he did), that he didn’t care (which was true.)

“Yeah,” Phil said curtly, “Of course I do.”

Dan raised an eyebrow. “What’s up with _you_?”

“Dan, you and I both know very well that we’ve had each other’s numbers since we first met.” Phil got up from his position on the floor, crossing his arms. Dan followed suit a few seconds after.

“So you’re telling me that you’re mad because I was making sure you had my number?”

“Fuck off Dan, this is about much more than whether I have your goddamn number or not.”

“Oh really? What’s this really about then, huh?”

“You are such a prick, you know that, right? You ask if I have your number to what, make it seem like I’m not good enough to have it? Like you’re better than me?”

“Oh shut up, Phil. I genuinely-”

“Don’t. Do _not_ pull that shit with me.” Phil butted in. “Every time we see each other-which lucky for us, just happens to be pretty much every day-you talk down to me as if I’m nothing. You put on this act, like you’re some sort of king. Guess what, you’re not!”

“As if you don’t do the exact same thing! You always have to one-up me, work on a move just _that_ much more than me, kiss up to Ida before class. This is a two way street here, Phil.”

“Okay fine. I hate to admit it, but you’re a fucking amazing dancer, Dan. But so am I. I don’t know about your life outside of the studio, but when we’re in here, neither of us is better than the other. Do you understand me?” Phil dropped his arms, which he’d been using to point accusingly at Dan.

Dan sighed. Honestly, he got where Phil was coming from. But he knew this habit would be hard to break. And even if he tried not to glare at Phil every minute or so like he usually did, it wasn’t like he could stop hating Phil. He’d always hated Phil. From the moment he first saw the older boy dance, Dan knew he’d be getting a run for his money. He despised that. He was scared. Scared of not being the best, scared of people liking someone else more than him. He held onto that fear, and it quickly turned into hate. Dan couldn’t give Phil an answer, so he put his hands on his hips and dropped his head. “Great, two fights in one night.”

“Sorry?” Phil asked coldly. 

Dan looked down at the floor and shook his head. “This one guy at a party said it was gay for guys to be dancers, and that people could choose their sexuality, that’s why I came here. To let off some steam.” Dan shook his head and gave out a soft laugh. “Why am I telling you this anyways? I doubt you even care.” He reached down to grab his phone and keys, ready to leave. As he was heading out the door, he heard Phil clear his throat.

“That… that sucks. Sorry.” Phil’s face softened as Dan turned to look at him, but Phil quickly broke eye contact, looking up at the fairy lights above the mirror. 

“Yeah, whatever.” And with that, Dan was gone. 

 

Dan checked his watch as he was on his way home. 10:33 pm. He hadn’t been out for too long, and yet so much had happened. _I’m never going out ever again_ , Dan thought to himself.


	5. Chapter 5

Dan sat on the edge of the merry go round, using his feet to rock himself side to side. Whenever he needed some time to think, he came to the playground near his house. The sky was overcast and there wasn’t a person in sight: it was perfect. 

Lately, Dan had been entertaining the thought of giving his spot at the _Grasp_ competition to someone else. He knew anyone else would say he was crazy for even thinking about it, but no one else knew the type of relationship that he had with Phil. They hadn’t even started choreographing yet and they were already driving each other crazy. Dan had to keep reminding himself that it would all be over in about a month, and the overall experience of the competition would be worth it. But he still couldn’t shake the desire to quit.

“Dan? Hey!” Dan heard the voice of Blair, one of the dancers in his contemporary class.

“Oh, hey Blair.” 

“Can I sit?” Blair stood with his hands in the pockets of his denim jacket, waiting for an answer.

“Oh, yeah, sure.” Dan moved a bit to the right to make room for the other dancer. “What’s up?”

“Well, I wasn’t expecting to see you here, but I’ve been wanting to talk to you about something, so I guess I got lucky today.” Blair leaned his elbows on his knees, clasping his hands together.

“You telling me you wanna talk to me is a little daunting,” Dan laughed, “But go ahead. What is it?”

“So I know this is none of my business, and you don’t have to answer, but _Grasp_ is pretty much right around the corner and things between you and Phil aren’t exactly great.”

Dan chuckled. “Tell me about it.”

“What are you gonna do about the situation between you two?”

“I’ll probably just get the competition over with and then let things go back to normal. To be honest, I considered giving my spot to someone else-”

“That’s insane! Dude, you won’t do that, right?”

“No, I’m gonna compete. I decided to suck it up; it’s only a month until _Grasp_ anyways.”

“Thank god.” Blair let out a sigh of relief. “So like, why do you hate Phil? He seems pretty nice to me.”

“I don’t know….” Dan wasn’t sure if he wanted to tell Blair everything he felt towards Phil, but he should probably tell someone, and Blair was asking. “I guess we’ve just had this rivalry since we were kids, y’know? I always wanted to be better than him, but whenever I improved, he did too. Eventually, we just started being… _mean_. And it was always about being better than the other, it still is.”

“But doesn’t that ever get tiring? Always being aware of Phil and his skill level and everything he can do and shit like that?”

“Oh, it’s exhausting.” Dan laughed softly.

“But like, does the rivalry even mean anything anymore?”

“I mean yeah, I still feel like I’ve gotta be better than him. But I think that’s just because I can get pretty competitive and this thing has been going on for so long. But now, it’s also because I just can’t let him have the last laugh. And he probably feels the same way. So it seems like we’ll be stuck in this loop until one of us leaves the studio, and God knows when that will be.”

“Do you think you could ever be friends with him?”

“Oh God no, he’s done some pretty petty shit, I wouldn’t wanna be friends with anyone who’d do that kind of stuff. And besides, we’re far too different.”

“Have you ever even had an actual conversation with him? How would you know?”

“Not really…but-”

“And have you ever considered that he might want to actually get to know you?”

Dan turned his whole body to look at Blair. He squinted, looking the other boy over. “Dude, I’m telling you all this because I trust you, but why are you interrogating me like this? Phil didn’t ask you to talk to me, did he?”

Blair put his hands up and laughed. “He didn’t put me up to this, I swear.” The dancer put his hands back down. “I’m just curious. And you two have to spend a lot of time together this month. Well, more than normal. I was just hoping you guys could maybe… settle your differences. So that the competition isn’t completely agonizing, of course.”

“Yeah, okay.” Dan was a little confused, but he thought it was probably best for him to talk about all that with someone.

Blair’s phone buzzed and he checked it. “Shit, my mum’s got dinner ready, gotta go.”

“Alright, um, nice talk.” Dan watched Blair as he stood up and started walking away from the playground.

“See you in contemporary!” Blair waved and Dan, feeling a little dazed, waved back. He pulled out his phone and sent a text to Phil:

_-can you meet me at the studio in 15 minutes? we need to start choreographing._

_-15 minutes is a bit short notice, don’t you think?_

_-can you meet me or not_

_-Yeah, sure_

And with that, Dan walked back to his house, changed into a t shirt and his favorite red dance shorts, got in his car, and drove to IGSD. When he got there, he tried the door before unlocking it to see if Phil had gotten there before him. Sure enough, it was unlocked. 

 

 _I’m five minutes early, did Phil really have to beat me here?_ Then Dan remembered Phil once saying that he lives just a few minutes away. _Why do I remember that? Whatever,_ Dan dismissed the thought, _let’s get this over with_. Dan walked into the studio to find Phil warming up at the barre. 

“Start stretching, I’ve got plans later and I don’t wanna take too long.”

“Hello to you too,” Dan said sarcastically as he set his things down on one of the benches by the mirror (in which he caught Phil rolling his eyes.) 

Once the two dancers were stretched, they played the song a few times and started brainstorming ideas. They tried out different poses and jumps and lifts (although they wouldn’t actually talk to each other most of the time, they were perfectly comfortable with physical contact while dancing. Grabbing each other by the hand or leaning against each other’s back was totally normal at this point.) 

“How about you take a few steps stage right and I lunge out and grab your waist and pull you back?” 

“Okay, I actually like that. Let’s try it to see if the pace matches the music. When you pull me back, I’ll walk behind you and grab your right hand to get you standing again?”

“Ooh, that’s good,” Dan said as he started the music. The beats in the song matched up with all the reaches and pulls, and the dancers loved it.

“Yes!” Phil exclaimed. “That’s a strong start to the dance, the judges will love it.”

“We don’t even know who the judges are, they could have a completely different style.”

“Doesn’t matter, they’ll still love it.”

The two boys worked for another hour. They agreed on pretty much everything, the only arguments they had were whether they should do a triple pirouette or a quadruple pirouette and what kind of costume would best fit the choreography (Dan wanted a flowy shirt, Phil wanted a tight one. They decided on figuring that out when they’d actually finished the dance.) 

“Shit, it’s 6:32.” Phil looked down at the clock on his phone. “I need to shower before I meet my friends. I should head out. You can keep working if you want to.”

“Nah, I think it would be better if we worked together for the whole thing. I’m gonna go home and watch Netflix or something.” Dan sat on the bench to catch his breath and grab a drink of water from his water bottle. 

“Nice. Well, uh, this wasn’t terrible.”

“Um, yeah, we actually made progress.” Dan wasn’t sure how to act. He’d never had an interaction with Phil that didn’t end in the urge to punch him or that wasn’t already horrible to begin with.

“Text me when you can choreograph again?”

“Yeah, sure thing,” Dan called out as Phil left the room.

Dan had to sit there for a minute, wondering if that had really happened. He and Phil hadn’t had a real fight. There was no yelling or belittling. It was kind of nice. Dan knew it was probably a one-time thing, but he couldn’t help but wish his time spent with Phil could be like that more often. 

~

Dan lazily walked over to his front door after he heard the knock that he knew came from Liam on the other side. He’d sent a quick text to his best friend half an hour ago asking if he wanted to spend the night, wanting someone to talk to other than Charlie (who was too busy playing video games anyways.) 

“Dan!” Liam pulled his friend into a quick hug before starting to follow him into the house, “What’s up?”

“Eh, not much. I felt like hanging out with someone but I’m pretty sure Charlie’s so far into his game that he can’t even see or hear me, so….” Dan led Liam into the kitchen, having his friend sit on one of the bar stools while he searched the fridge for something to eat. “Cereal good with you?” When he saw his friend nod, he reached up into a cupboard for two bowls.

“You ready for school tomorrow?” Liam groaned and rested his head on his hand as Dan sat down next to him, placing the bowls down onto the breakfast bar. 

“Ugh, no. I swear, Mrs. McElroy is trying to get me to fail. She didn’t teach half of what was on that last test.”

“Or you just didn’t study?”

“I mean…it’s not my fault if I have to dance for hours after school every day. Sometimes I just don’t have time to study.” Dan watched as Liam laughed and rolled his eyes.

“I’m sure you got a good grade regardless. You always do.” 

“Oh, whatever.”

“So,” Liam said with a mouth full of cereal, “Did you have dance today?”

“Not really. I didn’t have actual class, but Phil and I started choreographing.”

“Oh god, how was that?”

“It actually wasn’t terrible?”

Liam looked over at Dan with a surprised look on his face. “Really?”

“Yeah. I mean, he was a prick at first, but we were actually able to get shit done without constantly yelling at each other or doing something petty. It was weird.” 

“Hmm. Do you think it’ll be like that again?”

“I don’t really know? I mean, this was the first time Phil and I have actually been able to get along so I can’t really know for sure. But I will admit that it was much better than fighting.”

“Woooow,” Liam sounded half-sarcastic, half-genuinely amazed, “I never thought I’d hear you say anything remotely similar to that.”

“You’d think that after eight years at IGSD, we’d discover that fighting doesn’t solve all of our problems. Well, I say that, but Phil and I are probably just gonna go back to fighting the next time we see each other.” Dan sighed, moving his spoon around with his finger, not hungry anymore, “I guess it was nice while it lasted.”

Liam raised his eyebrows at Dan. “You’ve gotta lemme know how it goes, yeah?” 

“Yeah.”

“You full? I wanna go watch more of those vine compilations.”

“You two will abso-fucking-lutely not watch any more of those,” Charlie shouted from his seat in the lounge, “I think my eardrums burst the last time!”

“Why do you even care? You tune everything out when you play video games anyways. I’m surprised you could even hear us just now, to be honest.”

“The one thing I can’t tune out is those god-forsaken vine compilations. I’m scarred for life, Dan.”

“Oh, shut up,” Dan said as he carried both of the bowls over to the sink to rinse them out. 

As Liam left the kitchen and began to walk towards the hallway that led to his friend’s bedroom, Dan couldn’t help but worry that there wouldn’t be another day that he and Phil would behave as they did today. Sure, if there was another time that they didn’t fight, it would most likely be in a year or so. But still, Dan wouldn’t mind waiting a year if it meant another brief truce with Phil.


	6. Chapter 6

_Grasp_ was in eight days, and Dan and Phil still hadn’t chosen a costume. They considered the classic black leggings and no shirt, but figured every guy at the competition would be wearing that. 

“Phil, a loose, flowy shirt would match this dance perfectly.”

“Are you kidding me? A tight shirt would be so much better.”

“You know what? Let’s just look through what we already have at the studio and see if we like anything, sound good?”

Phil rolled his eyes and laughed. “Fine, but I’ll bet money we settle on a tight shirt.”

“I’m not betting money on this.”

“Ha! It’s because you’re not confident enough that we’ll choose a flowy shirt.”

“No, I just don’t want to bet on the damn costume we choose.”

“Whatever, Dan. Let’s go to the costume closet.”

Things between the two boys had been pretty spectacular since the first time they started choreographing. Dan wasn’t sure if this was because they were being forced to work together so much or if they’d just never been able to really get to know each other because they were too busy fighting. Sure, they had small disagreements, but compared to how they were acting before, their recent behavior towards each other could probably be labeled as a miracle. He didn’t want to admit it, but he kind of loved it. His feud with Phil frequently got to be tiring, and, as Dan had told Liam, getting along was much more fun than fighting. At this point, Dan was almost afraid that once Grasp was over, Phil would turn cold again and things would go back to normal. But he couldn’t worry about that until later. Right now, he had to make sure Phil didn’t find those hideous red metallic tops they’d had to wear a few years ago.

“Hey what about this?” Phil was sitting on the floor next to Dan, holding up a turquoise version of the red metallic top.

“Goddamn it, I thought we only had those in red. And absolutely not, those are repulsive and I’d rather die than wear them.”

“Damn, fine,” Phil said defensively. 

Dan looked through a box labeled “men’s hip hop” and pulled out a mesh tank top with rhinestones around the collar. It took everything in him to keep from laughing. “How did we not find this before?” 

“Don’t even joke about that Dan, that’s so horrendous!”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. It’s so hot.” Dan threw it back into its box and laughed, Phil shook his head and chuckled.

They sorted through box after box, each boy loving the costumes they would suggest and hating the costumes the other one would show them. They were able to make a pile of a few costumes they could both barely agree on, but they’d gone through almost everything and couldn’t find anything they both loved. 

“Y’know, Dan, maybe we could just see if either of us has anything at h-”

“Oh my god Phil look.” Dan held up two plain white button down shirts. They were a pretty thin material, and were a bit oversized, so they’d be a little flowy but not too much. There wasn’t anything special about them, but that’s what made them so perfect. Everything else they’d seen had had some complicated design or overly bright color. 

“Holy shit Dan, you did it.”

“Hell yeah I did! Now we can finally stop worrying about _that_.”

“Yeah,” Phil said with false enthusiasm, “Now we get to worry about lighting!”

“Ughhhh.” Dan flopped onto his back, laying on the floor. “But that shouldn’t take too long, we really only need to figure out what the background color is gonna be.”

“Yeah, it’s obviously gonna be hot pink. That would look so good.”

Dan shot up. “You’re joking right?”

Phil smirked. “Yes I’m joking!” He laughed as Dan let out a sigh of relief. “Would a dark amber color look good?”

Dan thought for a second, visualizing what that would look like. He nodded. “That’s good, yeah let’s do that.”

Phil held up his right hand and Dan high fived him. The two had been doing that whenever they thought of a really good idea. Dan wasn’t quite used to it yet. _Just one month ago, Phil and I were seething whenever we saw each other_ , Dan thought to himself, _Now we’re high fiving and laughing together. My life is pretty weird._

~

“Dan, Phil, can you two stay after class for a few minutes?” Ida gestured for the two boys to sit down as the others left to go home. 

“Sure thing.” Dan sat on the bench next to Phil and took a drink from his water bottle. 

“So,” Ida pulled a chair over to sit near the dancers, “Your transportation to Brighton and hotel arrangements have been all sorted out. You’ll take the train there, and you’ve got a hotel room with two queen beds. Is that all… good?”

Dan knew she was concerned about if they’d be fine with staying in a room together. It was obvious everyone could tell he and Phil were getting along, the looks of confusion he got whenever he and Phil talked in class gave that away. But he guessed Ida was still trying to be cautious.

“Yeah, that’s fine,” He looked over at Phil, who nodded in agreement.

“Great. Well, you two will take the 2 pm train tomorrow, so you’ll have to miss jazz. You should get to the hotel by 3:45, so you’ve got time to relax before the competition which you need to be at by 2 pm on Friday. You’ll come back on Sunday at noon.”

“Awesome.”

“So you’ve got everything figured out? Costume? Lighting? Choreography all done?”

“Yep, we’re all good.”

“Alright then, I won’t keep you any longer. Have fun while you’re there, and send pictures.”

“We will,” Phil assured, walking to the exit, Dan following behind him. 

“Well, see you tomorrow,” Dan said when they’d reached the parking lot.

“I’m kinda nervous, are you nervous?” 

“Not really, but I probably will be once we get there. All this dancing experience and I still get nervous before shows.”

“It’s just that there are gonna be amazing dancers from all over the country, what if our dance isn’t good enough?”

“Oh, come on Phil. Our dance is amazing! For now, just focus on the fact that we’re even going to _Grasp_ at all. I mean, that’s a pretty big accomplishment.”

“You’re right,” Phil nodded, “Come here.” The older boy pulled Dan into a hug. 

Dan smiled. This was really nice. Phil was turning out to be a great person to hang out with, and he was actually excited to go to _Grasp_ with him. Dan pulled away, still smiling. The boys said their goodbyes and headed off in opposite directions to their cars, both of them more than ready for the next few days.


	7. Chapter 7

Phil pushed open the door to their hotel room, revealing a bathroom to their right, a closet to their left, two queen beds, a dresser, and a TV. It was an average hotel room, but the two boys rarely stayed in hotels and were pretty excited. They each chose a bed to drop their bags on (Dan chose the one closest to the window, Phil chose the one closest to the door) and started exploring their home for the next two days. They marveled at the plushness of the pillows and the fact that you could just make a quick call and have food delivered to your room. 

Dan walked over to the far side of the bedroom, looking out the window at the beach, a sight he rarely got to see. His family barely ever travelled. He replayed the train ride from London over in his head, amazed at how far his friendship with Phil had come in the past month. They’d sat facing each other, trying to play Cards Against Humanity (but failing because it’s not the easiest game to play with only two people.) They’d laughed over funny Vines, just as Dan and Liam had done a while ago. They shared a bag of cheddar popcorn, even though Phil said he was lactose intolerant. The other passengers glared at them when they burst into fits of laughter when they pulled out Cards Against Humanity again to play charades using the white cards.

“This is pretty damn nice, I'm not sure I'm gonna want to leave on Sunday,” said Phil, opening the drawer of the bedside table in between their two beds. “Wanna look through the Instagram accounts of the other competitors?” 

“Duh. Maybe they're all gruesomely ugly and it'll make me less nervous about tomorrow.”

“So you're finally nervous, I see. Anyways, they're dancers, Dan. They're all gonna be fit.”

“Shit, you're right. Worth a shot. Let's still look through their accounts though.”

Phil sat down on his bed and leaned against the pillows, Dan flopped down right beside him. They looked through about ten accounts before Dan got bored, saying they all looked like gods and goddesses and had all won tons of awards which they bragged about in their bios, and looking through any more was pointless. Phil agreed. 

“How do you think we'll do tomorrow?” Phil looked to his right over at Dan.

“I'm usually really confident whenever I go to a competition, but right now, I'm not so sure. These dancers look really good, Phil. What if we don't even place?”

“Oh come on, our dance is so fucking good. We're definitely going to place. These other people might have great technique, but I doubt any of the duos have the sort of stage presence and chemistry we have. We make a really good team, Dan. Like, scary good.”

“Kinda sucks we didn't figure that out earlier.”

Phil laughed softly. “No shit, Sherlock. Oh, I've been meaning to tell you. In our dance, there's this one part you're doing weirdly. Your arm placement is kinda distracting from what I'm doing. It's the part right after the fouette turns, I think.”

Dan sat up so that he could face Phil with his whole torso. “Wait, you think that there are points in this dance where one of us is more important to the dance than the other?” 

“Well in this particular part, I think I'm more…in focus, I guess you could say.”

“Hold on, this dance is a duet. Every part needs both of us for it to look complete. That's kinda the point.” Dan couldn't believe Phil was actually saying this. 

“I'm fully aware of the point of a duet, thank you very much.” Phil was sitting up now. “But in this part-”

“Can you let go of ‘this part’ for just one goddamn second? This isn't about that. _You’re_ the one who preached about us being equal, Phil. Not me.”

“And I understand that, but when I said that I was talking about us being petty all the time, y’know?. How about we just go over that part and see what we can do.”

“No.” Dan sighed, standing up now. “I'm going into town, I need some time to think. I'll be back later.” He reached over to his bed and grabbed his lavender bomber jacket.

“Dan wait, can we talk about-”

“See you later Phil.” Dan accidentally slammed the door while on his way out, he cursed under his breath. All he wanted to do was get away from Phil. Preferably for as long as possible. For most people, a small argument like this wouldn't end with someone leaving. But he and Phil had been through such a big change over the past month. He was just starting to trust Phil, to think he was someone different than the person Dan had assumed he was. 

Dan found himself in a small coffee shop with walls covered in art from various local artists and plants in every place that one could fit. He sat down at an open table after grabbing the chai latte he ordered from the bar and let his thoughts wash over him, emotions pooling up inside his brain. He was angry. And confused. And hurt. He didn't know what to do. He knew he should probably talk to Phil about how he was feeling, but he didn't wanna do that until a lot later. He could just walk around and shop, distract himself from the situation.

“Sorry to bother you, young man, but you look like you have worries on your mind.”

Dan glanced up to see a woman, probably in her mid 60’s, looking down at him. He laughed. “How can you tell?”

“I have kids. And my kids have kids. I've seen a lot of worried faces in my lifetime. Do you mind sharing your thoughts?”

 _What the hell, it's not like this is my deepest, darkest secret_. “Yeah sure. Please, sit down. I'm Dan by the way.”

“Meredith. So what’s on your mind?”

“Well, there’s this one guy I’m here for a dance competition with. His name’s Phil. He and I used to hate each other. We were always trying to be better than the other, kiss up to our dance instructors more than the other, stuff like that. But when we were both chosen for this competition, we actually started getting along; you could pretty much say we’re friends now. But today he said something that makes me think he still hasn’t let go of that feud. I wanted so badly for us to be friends because he’s such a fun guy and I love spending time with him, but I’m just worried he’s not who I’ve been hoping he is.” Dan felt good for telling someone all that. He let out a sigh of relief. 

Meredith took a sip of her coffee, thinking. “It sounds like this new friendship is mutual, yes?” When Dan nodded, she continued. “Just have a talk with him. Maybe you interpreted him wrongly, or he said something he didn’t mean to say. Communication is always key in every kind of relationship. Tell him how you felt when he said what he said, but try to understand his point of view.”

Dan considered this for a second. “You’re right. As I was leaving our hotel room , he said he wanted to talk about it. I should probably go back and figure this out. Thank you so much for talking to me about this.”

Meredith beamed at Dan. “It was my pleasure.”

“Hey, that competition is tomorrow, would you like to come?”

“Oh absolutely!” Meredith handed Dan a scrap piece of paper from her purse for him to write all of the details on. When he was done, she tucked the paper away. “I wish you the best of luck.” 

~

Dan threw his now-empty cup in a bin outside his hotel and headed inside, hurrying to get back to the room. The 30 second elevator ride was agonizing, all he wanted to do was get things sorted out with Phil. He rushed out of the elevator, almost running into a small child. He didn’t pause while saying his apologies to the kid’s mother, which may have not been the best idea, but in that moment, it was the least of his worries. Dan fumbled through his wallet, where he was storing his room key, and swiped it through the lock on the door. When the door unlocked, he practically burst through. 

Dan entered the room to find Phil laying in bed, watching Harry Potter on the TV. He jumped a bit, caught off guard by Dan’s sudden entrance. “You’re back,” he said cautiously, clearly not wanting to fight anymore. 

“Can we talk?” Dan sat down on the edge of Phil’s bed while Phil paused the movie. “I kind of had a conversation with a grandma who told me I should have a talk with you about this.”

“You talked to a grandma? Where?’”

“Coffee shop. So, can we talk?”

“Oh, yeah, of course,” Phil affirmed, scooting to the left so Dan could sit by him, “What’s up?”

“Okay,” Dan moved over next to Phil, “I’ve realized a few things during this past month. First of all, I was a fucking idiot for starting this whole feud with you. I never even gave myself the chance to see what you were like before deciding that I hated you, and I’m so sorry for that.”

Dan looked over at the older dancer for a second. Phil smiled.

“Secondly,” Dan began talking again, “I know we’ve only been friends for about a month now, but I already really value our friendship.”

Phil’s eyes lit up. “I do too!”

Dan beamed. “I’m so glad.” He paused, and his smile faltered. “But let’s be honest, this friendship is clearly fragile. If I’m being honest, we hated each other for a pretty damn long time. I think it could be really easy for us to go back to how we used to be after just one fight or disagreement.”

The older boy looked down at his hands. He nodded.

“What I’m saying is, I care about you. I don’t want for us to go back to hating each other after an argument because we couldn’t talk it out.”

Phil looked up. “Let’s talk this out then.”

Dan gave Phil a grateful smile. “Okay,” He nodded, “I guess I’ve never really thought of this dance as a duet.”

Phil gave the brown-haired dancer a quizzical look.

“What I mean is, when we dance together, it’s not like we’re two different people. It’s almost like we’re one person split in two. It’s almost scary how well we dance together. You’ve looked in the mirrors, you’ve seen videos of our dances together. You know what I’m talking about.”

Phil chuckled in agreement. “Yeah, I do.”

“So I guess when you said that there was a part in the dance where I was distracting from what you were doing, it kind of shocked me a bit. I thought we were on the same page, y’know?”

“Yeah,” Phil sighed, “I thought about what you said while you were gone. I think I’ve been so used to trying to one-up you that even now those old habits still haven’t completely gone away. I obviously don’t want to have this rivalry anymore, but I’d gotten so accustomed to it that it almost became second nature to me. I hadn’t even thought of our dance that way until you mentioned it. But I’m glad you said something, because I never would have realized I was thinking about it the wrong way.”

“So we’re good?”

“We’re good.”

“Fuck,”Dan exhaled, his shoulders dropping. “I’m so glad we cleared that up. Can we agree to always be completely honest with each other?”

“Obviously.” Phil hesitated a bit before giving his answer, but Dan didn’t notice. “Well, now that we’re being all honest and shit, wanna tell me any secrets?”

“Yeah, I stole your credit card before I left and bought 50 pairs of designer shoes for myself. You’ll be in debt for years.”

“Wonderful,” Phil grinned, “Wanna watch Harry Potter with me?”

“Yeah, which one?”

“Order of the Phoenix.”

“Oh God, the book is so much better.” Dan rolled his eyes.

“Hmm. I honestly prefer all of the movies to the books.”

Dan looked over at the older boy in disbelief. “Phil.”

“I’m joking!” Phil giggled, biting his tongue.

“Phil, that’s not funny!” Dan playfully slapped Phil’s right arm.

“You’re such a nerd.”


	8. Chapter 8

“Does my hair look okay?” Dan stared at himself in the dressing room mirror, which was surrounded with those big light bulbs that you’d see in the movies, trying to fix every flaw in his appearance. He knew no one on the audience would be able to see the wrinkles in his shirt or the tiny patch of powder that had smudged on his leggings, but he didn’t care. They’d arrived at the theater about two hours ago, and the competition was just about to begin. Dan and Phil’s dance wasn’t until the end of the show, however, so they still had another 90 minutes or so to get ready. 

“For the 100th time, it looks fine, Dan.” Phil was fixing his own hair in the mirror. The subtle highlight he’d applied earlier reflected off his chiseled cheekbones, and Dan couldn’t help but marvel at how good he looked. 

“I just feel like all of the curls are out of place. Eh, whatever. How do you do your eyebrows like that?” Dan referred to the other dancer’s perfectly carved-out eyebrows, “Mine just look like caterpillars. You fill yours in so well.”

“Well yeah, a dancer’s gotta be able to make their face look good for a performance. Come over one day and I’ll teach you how to not suck at makeup, yeah?”

“Hey. I could be worse.” 

“But you could also be a lot better.” Phil gestured at Dan’s eyes, which had little spots of mascara all over them. 

“Yeah, that’s fair.”

The two boys had about thirty minutes to kill before they needed to start warming up and stretching, so they decided to play a game of truth or dare. They sat with their legs crossed on the tiled floor of their dressing room, facing each other. Phil went first, choosing truth. 

“Okay. What was your first kiss like?” Dan giggled, leaning forward, anticipating Phil’s answer. 

“Oh God, it was awful!” Phil let Dan laugh again before continuing. “I was 16, and there was this girl who liked me named Kate. I didn’t like her back but I’d never kissed anyone before so when she asked to kiss me I just kinda went along with it. It was really wet and gross and I hated it. When it was over, I wondered how anyone could enjoy kissing if that was what it felt like.”

“Oh no that’s so bad! Pretty funny though. Okay, my turn. Truth.”

“Um,” Phil thought for a second, trying to come up with a good question, “Same thing, what was _your_ first kiss like?”

“Ooh, this is a good one. So I was in my drama class one day when I was 15, and my friend and I thought it would be funny to stage kiss each other. We both leaned in, but when we realized that he and I never said who was gonna put their thumbs in between our lips, it was too late. I was fine with it but I’m pretty sure I scarred him for life.”

Phil doubled over with laughter. “That story is so much better than mine! My turn again? Dare.” He smirked and raised his eyebrows, making Dan giggle again. 

“I dare you to go ask the people in the dressing room next to us for something really weird.”

Phil thought about this for a second, then got up to open the door to their dressing room. When he knocked on the door of the room to their left, a blonde girl opened it. Dan leaned on the doorframe of his and Phil’s room and crossed his arms.

“Hey, I know this is weird,” Phil said to the girl, “But I was wondering if you had some water? I completely forgot my water bottle at my hotel, I’m so forgetful sometimes.” Phil kept a straight face while the blonde gave him a confused look. Dan was a bit confused too, as water wasn’t that weird.

“Um, there’s a water fountain right there.” She pointed past Phil to the fountain right behind him.

“Yeah, I know, but I don’t drink water from public fountains. I believe the government puts chemicals in it so they can control our minds.” Phil didn’t show a sign of breaking character, and Dan had to do everything in his power to keep from bursting into laughter. The girl took a second, her false eyelashes fluttering when she blinked. A brunette sitting in a chair in the corner of the blonde’s dressing room looked up from her phone and gave Phil a dirty look.

“Oh, uh, sorry, the only water I have is from that fountain.” The girl started to close the door but stopped when Phil touched her shoulder with a look of concern.

“You really shouldn’t drink from that. God knows what the government is making you think.”

The blonde brushed Phil’s hand from her shoulder. “Yeah, good luck later, bye.” She hurriedly closed the door while Phil enthusiastically waved and wished her good luck as well. 

“Damn, Lester,” Dan gave Phil a look of astonishment as the older boy walked past him and winked, going back to the spot on the floor where he’d been sitting before. “You sure you don’t wanna quit dancing to become an actor?” He sat back down as Phil beamed at him.

The two dancers spent another half-hour playing truth or dare. Those 30 minutes were filled with exposing Dan’s guilty pleasure movie (Legally Blonde), Phil sending a blind text to his mom (she replied back within minutes, asking if he was drunk), and Dan trying countless times to lick his own elbow (Phil thought this was hilarious, taking pictures of all the different angles that Dan was trying.) The next 30 minutes after that were spent scrolling through Tumblr, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook. They filled the silence with How To Be A Human Being by Glass Animals because Phil claimed it was one of the best albums he’d heard in years. After that, they stretched and warmed up until a man with ginger hair and circle-framed glasses knocked on their door to tell them they were on in 10 minutes and needed to head down near the stage.

The two dancers stood in a little hallway near the stage entrance. Dan paced around, taking deep breaths. Phil stood silently, staring at his feet.

“Phil,” Dan said, still pacing, “How are you not nervous? I’m kind of terrified.”

Phil smiled, crossing his arms by his chest. “Who says I’m not nervous?”

“I guess I just make it more obvious?”

“Definitely.” The black-haired dancer uncrossed his arms and moved his hands to his hips, clearly unsure of what to do with them. “Actually, there’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you.”

Dan stopped in his tracks and looked over at Phil. “Oh no. That sounds scary. And we only have a few minutes before we go on.”

Phil let out an anxious chuckle, “Don’t worry, it’s not anything bad. And it won’t take long.”

“Okay...” Dan squinted at Phil, “So what is it?”

“Do you remember yesterday when we agreed to be completely honest with each other?”

“Yeah. Have you not told me something I need to know?” The brown haired boy looked at the other dancer, who was staring downwards again, seemingly unable to speak.

“Phil we’re about to go on and if it can wait then-”

Suddenly, Phil was moving again, grabbing Dan by his shirt collar and pulling him into a kiss. It only lasted a few seconds, but the two boys were both breathless when Dan pulled away. In such a short amount of time, it was as if a million things had shifted inside of him. There were a million new questions, and a million new realizations, and a million new emotions he couldn’t quite put a name on or describe. He didn’t need a mirror to know his face had never been as red as it was right now, and he could probably say the same about Phil. 

Phil.

When Dan looked at the other dancer, it was as if he was looking at a completely different person than the one he thought he’d known since he started dancing. He wasn’t able to pinpoint what the look on Phil’s face was conveying, and he suddenly wanted to know every thought that was running through that blue-eyed boy’s head. Neither one of them had said a word since the kiss, and Dan wanted to break the silence with some sort of comforting comment. But before he was able to say anything, the same ginger from earlier rounded the corner. 

“Dan and Phil? It’s your turn to perform.”


	9. Chapter 9

Let’s start from the beginning. Well, the beginning of Phil’s time at the Ida Gatley School of Dance. He started dancing when he was eleven, at around the same time that Dan did. At first, he thought he could be friends with the younger dancer. Phil didn’t have many friends that weren’t as old as he was, but Dan was only one year younger, so he thought they’d still be able to get along. They both had the same passion, and Dan seemed nice enough. It was because of this that Phil was taken aback when Dan started acting so hostile towards him. He wondered if he’d done anything to upset the other dancer, but when he asked about it, he was laughed at and ignored. 

Now, Phil wasn’t the type of person to take any shit from anyone. He decided the game Dan was playing was a game for two. He started to return the looks of disgust, which turned into acts of pettiness, which turned into genuine hate. Phil couldn’t stand the way Dan thought he was so much better than him, so the older dancer did everything in his power to prove Dan otherwise.

For about seven years, the two boys’ rivalry persisted. Everyone at their studio knew about it, but didn’t bother to give it much attention as the drama at their respective schools seemed to be much worse. After all, what’s the big deal with two amazing dancers trying to outdo each other? It actually made sense to everyone at IGSD. If you want to get anywhere with dancing, you’ve gotta be the best. 

But a little after those seven years of small but mostly tolerable acts of malevolence, something changed. Phil fell in love. At first, he completely denied it. There was no way in hell he could have even the smallest trace of romantic feelings for the boy he’d hated since he was a kid. But after the countless times he caught himself staring at the curls in Dan’s hair (like the ocean’s waves), or the freckles on his arms (like constellations), or the dimple on his cheek (just waiting to be poked lovingly), Phil gave in to his emotions. And for another year, he had to deal with his crush all by himself. He didn’t know what to do. He obviously couldn’t tell anyone at IGSD, and his school friends would just make fun of him for liking the boy he’d had such an ongoing feud with. He couldn’t talk about it on any social media platforms, because he had friends following all of them. He could have kept a diary, but a diary couldn’t talk back to him or give any advice. So, without an outlet to express his feelings, Phil became even more vile towards Dan.

Phil would whisper things that were clearly about Dan to other dancers while the younger boy was obviously watching. He’d comment on “how bad Dan’s technique was” even though he was secretly mesmerized by the other dancer’s skill. He once wrote a nasty twitter thread about Dan with the full intent of it seeping its way through the feeds of other dancers and into Dan’s timeline. Phil felt that his malice would make sure no one would ever suspect that he felt anything other than hate for Dan. He used his false loathing as armor; nobody would get to see underneath it. 

As Phil became more and more vicious, Dan followed suit, clearly not wanting Phil to think he could get away with his newfound maliciousness. Choreographers and even a few other dancers tried to talk to them about their conflict, but the boys were stubborn. The pointe instructor eventually threatened to kick them both out of her class if their behavior continued, as did a few other teachers. Dan and Phil’s love for dance outweighed their desire to make each other’s time in the studio as unbearable as possible. They silently agreed to be as civil as possible while in a class, but they still shot glares at each other whenever they had the chance (which was quite frequently.) The minute that whichever class they were in at the time ended, the boys resumed with their snarky remarks and verbal altercations.

Then, they were told about the duet for _Grasp_. Phil suddenly became hopeful. He wondered if this would be a chance for him and Dan to maybe talk about their feud without wanting to punch each other by the end of their conversation. When they started forming an actual friendship, Phil was ecstatic. Yeah, they still occasionally had small meaningless arguments, but for the first time in their lives they were actually getting to really know each other. They were making each other laugh and smile and Phil loved it. This didn’t help with his feelings for Dan, though. If anything, he fell even deeper in love with the other boy. It killed him. 

Phil knew he couldn’t go on forever without letting Dan know how he felt. He could admit that kissing him right before they competed might not have been the best idea in the world, but he knew that they’d be too caught up with awards and celebrations after Grasp was over. And besides, he knew the courage he’d plucked up would be gone by the time they got back to the hotel later that night. So with that, Phil did what he’d been longing to do for so long.


	10. Chapter 10

The two boys walked to the middle of the stage in the pitch black of the unlit theater, hearts pounding. They moved into their beginning positions, waiting desperately to begin dancing. Dan needed anything to distract him from the previous few minute’s events, and what better than a dance with the person who’d just kissed him out of the blue, right? Dan couldn’t tell how he felt about the situation right now, but for the moment, he just needed to focus on putting on a performance that would win IGSD the Platinum Award. 

Before Dan could let any other thoughts run through his mind, a soft amber haze washed over the dancers and the song, _I Found_ , began playing as Phil took his first step away from Dan. As the younger boy reached out to grab the other boy’s waist, pulling him back with a little more passion than any of the times they’d rehearsed the dance, he started to get caught up in the movement. The further the choreography progressed, the further Dan’s thoughts were tucked away into the back of his mind. But he still couldn’t shake the kiss from his mind.

The dancers leaped in unison, they skimmed across the stage, turned, kicked, reached out to each other with extended arms. Out of the hundreds of times they’d run through their dance, this was the most thrilling, electrifying, exhilarating run-through they’d ever done. They could almost feel the excitement coming from each and every audience member. This was the moment that Dan and Phil had been anticipating since they’d found out they’d be competing here. And, at least to Dan’s judgement, they were killing it. 

The ending pose, which consisted of the two dancers leaning back to back, came much more sooner than Dan would have preferred. This competition was the most waited-for thing in his current life and in just a few minutes of dancing, it was pretty much all over. All that was left was the award ceremony later that night. As the lights dimmed again and the boys recovered from their poses, they heard the once-silent crowd erupt into a standing ovation so loud that Dan was sure it could be heard from the beach miles away. There hadn’t ever been a time in his life that he’d received this much praise from an audience, and a wave of joy flooded over him. It took everything in him not to verbally express his happiness as he walked alongside Phil off the stage and into the hallway outside the backstage area.

Once they were out of earshot of the audience seated inside the theater, Dan ran at Phil, enclosing him in a hug. Phil reciprocated, leaning back to pick Dan’s feet off the ground, spinning around.

“We did it, Phil,” Dan muttered, his head nestled into the older boy’s neck, “We fucking did it.” 

When Phil set Dan back down with a huge grin on his face, the brown haired boy kept his arms around Phil’s neck. Phil, blushing, left his hands rested against Dan’s back. The younger boy wasn’t sure what came over him when he tilted his head a bit to the side and kissed the other dancer, but he was glad he did. During the time that he was onstage, he’d realized how much he just wanted to feel Phil’s lips against his again. He wasn’t sure why, but he could leave figuring that out for another time. For now, he just wanted to keep kissing Phil. 

“Dan,” Phil pulled away, smiling, “As much as I want to keep doing this, I’m not sure the middle of a hallway where anyone could see us is the best place.”

“Oh, right.” Dan blushed, removing his arms from around Phil’s neck and grabbing his hand instead. They walked side by side back to their dressing room in silence, both trying to process everything that was happening.

“So, uh….” Phil giggled as they returned to the small white room where they'd have to wait until the winner would be announced, which would be in about an hour.

“Oh, shut up and kiss me,” Dan whined, taking Phil by the waist. 

Phil smirked, leaning into the other dancer. “I can do that.”

~

All of the dancers gathered in the theater, ready for the award ceremony to begin. Most of the people here had already been to countless dance competitions, but Dan could tell just by looking around that everyone was at least a little bit nervous. The competitors settled into their seats with tense smiles on their faces as the announcer, a bubbly woman with long black hair, stepped onto the stage. As she introduced herself as Lily Garza, Dan reached over and grabbed Phil’s hand with his own. 

“Nervous?” Phil whispered as Lily began to congratulate everyone on all they’d done to prepare for _Grasp_.

“I mean,” Dan turned to look at the older boy, “We worked so hard for this. How could I not be nervous?” 

Phil gave Dan an encouraging smile and kissed him on the cheek, making Dan visibly blush in the dim light of the theater. The boys hadn’t talked about what was going on between them yet. Dan was a bit confused but still very happy. He wasn’t sure if he’d had feelings for Phil before today, or if their first kiss had sparked those feelings that he now felt. But that didn’t really matter, and he could save thinking about that for later. 

“So, without further ado,” The announcer brought Dan and Phil’s attention back to the stage, “It’s time for the awards!”

Dan tightened his grip on Phil’s hand, nervous to see if they won anything. The boys had worked so hard for this, the younger boy couldn’t help but want to win the Platinum Award, the highest level award. He looked around to see the nervous faces of other dancers and audience members all looking up at the announcer .

“First, we have the Bronze Award,” Lily looked around at the anxious audience, “This goes to… Adam Miller and Ethan Clark from Artistic Motion Dance Studio!” 

The aforementioned dancers rose from their seats to go get the award that was being held out to the onstage. The audience was clapping generously, but Adam and Ethan sported looks of disappointment as they climbed the stairs on the side of the stage. Lily congratulated them with a smile and sent them back to their seats. One of the dancers gave the other a pat on the back as they sat down again.

Dan was even more nervous now. There were only three awards left, and this room was filled with some of the best dancers in England. _What if we don’t win an award?_ Dan shook the thought from his mind, trying to focus on Lily, who was about to speak into the microphone again. 

“Next is the Silver Award. This award goes to… Kana Davies and Antonio Guerrero from Jamie McPhail School of Dance!” 

Kana and Antonio shot up from their seats with huge smiles plastered to their faces, clearly much more excited than the previous two dancers. They hurried over to the stage to receive their award, beaming at Lily before walking back to their seats. 

Only two awards left. Dan’s heart felt like it was about to burst from his chest. When he felt Phil nudge him in the shoulder, he realized how hard he’d been squeezing the other dancer’s hand. He quickly loosened his hold.

“Okay, now is the second highest award, the Gold Award.” Lily sounded completely relaxed and happy but Dan could physically feel the nervousness in his chest, his heart pounding. “This one goes to… Dan Howell and Phil Lester from Ida Gatley School of Dance!”

Dan froze, unable to move as all of his muscles tensed up. _Second place,_ he thought, _oh my god oh my god ohmygod._ The audience burst into applause and Dan felt the older boy standing up next to him, and was suddenly able to get up too. The boys made their way through the row of seats and down the red-carpeted aisle towards the stage. As they walked up the steps, Dan sensed Phil’s hand on his lower back, moving him forward to the middle of the stage. Lily smiled and handed them their Gold Award, Phil took it and smiled back at her. The boys turned around and walked back to the side of the stage to descend the stairs. As they walked back to their seats, other dancers congratulated them even though they were clearly extremely anxious for the announcement of the Platinum Award. 

When Dan sat back down in his seat next to Phil, a wave of relief washed over him. _It’s over_ , he thought to himself, _We didn’t get Platinum but it’s all over._ He looked over at Phil, who laughed. Dan couldn’t help but laugh, too. The winners of the Platinum award were probably being announced but Dan didn’t care. All that mattered in that moment was the fact that they’d won second place, Grasp was over, and that he and Phil now had something that was more than just a friendship. 

The crowd burst into an ovation that was louder than any that they’d heard during all of the awards ceremony, signifying that the Platinum Award winners had been announced, and two dancers, both girls, stood up. Phil let out a quick laugh when he saw that the girls were the ones he’d warned about public water fountains just a couple hours earlier. Dan giggled. Suddenly the two boys were failing to contain their laughter and a few other dancers turned their heads with dirty looks on their faces, but Dan and Phil didn’t care. They managed to pull themselves together, still smiling, as Lily thanked all of the competitors and wished them well until the following competition.

As the two boys walked through theater to get back to their dressing room, Dan heard a familiar voice calling out to him. He and Phil spun around to see a lady that Dan recognized as Meredith from the coffee shop the previous day. 

“Meredith, hi!” Dan held out his arms to hug her as Phil stood there in confusion. “Oh, Phil, this is Meredith. Meredith, this is Phil.”

“Hey.” Phil held out his hand and gave a smile when the woman shook it.

“You two were absolutely amazing. Phenomenal job, boys. Congratulations on the award!”

“Thank you so much!” Dan beamed, “Too bad we didn’t get the Platinum award.”

“Oh, don’t beat yourself up! This is just a reason to try even harder next year, right?”

Dan looked over at Phil with a grin. “Of course. Well,” He said, looking back at Meredith, “We should go get our stuff from our dressing room. Thank you for coming to the competition!”

“You’re very welcome. Go out and celebrate tonight, you two,” She said in a motherly tone, “You deserve it.”

“We will,” Phil spoke up, putting the arm that wasn’t holding the award around the other boy’s shoulders, “Have a good night!”

Meredith gave a quick wave before turning around towards the theater’s exit.

“And,” Phil turned his head to look over at Dan, “Who was that?”

“That grandma I told you about talking to in the coffee shop yesterday. I gave her the info about the competition.”

“Ah.” Phil nodded, removing his arm from around Dan’s shoulders so he could switch the award to the other hand. He leaned in and gave Dan a quick kiss. “Hey, do wanna go down to the beach later?”

“Yeah, do you wanna bring some food?”

“Duh,” Phil grinned, “Let’s go.”

~

“Did you get everything?” Phil paced around the dressing room, making sure they weren’t about to leave anything behind. “Hairspray? Mascara? It’s all in your bag?”

“Chill, I’ve got everything. The Uber’s on its way.”

“Great let’s get out of here.” Phil pushed down on the door handle and stepped out into the hallway, holding the door open for Dan. He quickly noticed two figures doing the same out of the corner of his eye. Dan suppressed a giggle as he watched Phil realize that he’d have to confront the blonde from earlier again. 

“Hey, nice to see you again!” Phil greeted the girls with a wave. “Congratulations on the Platinum Award, by the way.”

“Oh, thanks.” The blonde spoke in a disinterested voice, clearly wanting to get as far away from Phil as possible. 

“Congrats on the Gold Award,” The brunette finally piped up, giving a small but polite smile to the two boys. 

“Thank you! Well, I guess we’ll see you at the next competition. Make sure not to drink from public water fountains! Who knows how many of your thoughts have been controlled by the government!”

The black haired boy remained cheery as the girls began walking down the hallway towards the exit, whispering to each other. Dan had to hold a hand over his mouth to hide his laugh, he was surprised that Phil was keeping the act up.

“Why didn’t you just tell them it was a dare?” Dan asked as he and Phil started to walk towards the exit just as the girls had.

“Where’s the fun in that? They may remember me as the crazy dude who thinks the government is controlling us through public water fountains, but that’s completely fine with me.” 

Dan grinned, taking Phil’s hand. “Okay. I say we go back to the hotel, take all this makeup off, change, go buy some food and a blanket, and have a picnic on the beach.”

“That sounds amazing. Can we get some champagne, or are you not into drinking?”

“I’m eighteen, Phil. Just a year younger than you are.”

Phil rolled his eyes. “Whatever. Still younger than me. So yes to the champagne?”

“Yeah, but I don’t wanna get drunk or anything. I’d rather fully remember this night.”

Phil looked over at Dan and smiled, squeezing his hand. “That can work.”


	11. Chapter 11

Phil put their blanket down on the sand and sat down while Dan set out all the food they’d brought: a baguette, goat cheese, some strawberries, and the cheapest champagne Phil could find. The younger boy wanted to get something more expensive but Phil agreed to buy the champagne and insisted on the cheapest bottle in the store.

“This is probably the fanciest thing I’ve eaten in years,” Dan said as he took a seat on the white blanket next to Phil.

“It’s not even that fancy,” replied Phil as he ripped off the end of the baguette.

“I know,” Dan laughed and reached over to grab a strawberry. He looked out at the water for a minute, watching the sun begin to set in an orange blur across the horizon. “Y’know,” He said as he took the glass of champagne that Phil was holding out to him, “I’m kinda really glad that _Grasp_ is over.”

“I thought you really enjoyed it.”

“Oh, I loved it. But I guess the end of the competition almost signified a fresh start, you get what I mean? Before we started to prepare for the competition, we hated each other. Then, we became friends because of the competition. And now…. Well, now, we’re more than that, I guess.” Dan blushed a bit as he looked over at Phil, who chuckled nervously.

“We should probably uh… talk about that?”

“Yeah.” Dan looked down at his glass, unsure of what to say.

“So um,” Phil started talking, much to Dan’s relief, “I know this is really new but I wanna be completely honest. A little bit after I turned seventeen, I started to like you. And I couldn’t let anyone know, so I started being even more cruel towards you. I know that’s such an awful thing to do, but how could anyone guess that I liked you if I treated you like that, y’know?” When the older boy saw Dan nod in understanding, he continued. “So I went on like that for a whole year. It hurt me so much to act like that but I felt like if you found out, my life at the studio would be even more awful. But then we started working together on the dance and we became friends and that was one of the best things to happen to me in a while. I thought that if you knew I had feelings for you but didn’t feel the same way, you wouldn’t totally ruin my life. So when I finally mustered up the courage, I kissed you. And here we are now.” 

Dan could see the relief all over Phil’s face, clearly thankful to have told him all of that, and the younger boy felt relieved to hear it. 

“So,” Phil took a sip of Champagne, “What’s your story?” 

“Well,” Dan sighed, looking out at the sloshing waves and disappearing sun, “To be honest, I didn’t realize I had feelings for you until you kissed me. But looking back on this past month, I’ve definitely liked you for at least a few weeks. When you started being nicer to me, it was like a switch flipped in my brain. I was always afraid that the next time we’d see each other, you’d just go back to acting the way you had before. I started to love spending time with you, and I looked forward to our choreography sessions more and more each day I’d see you. I guess I just thought my feelings for you were purely platonic because I’ve never felt this way towards anyone before. I’d obviously liked all of my other boyfriends a lot, but I like you so much more than I’ve ever liked anyone else.”

Dan looked back over to see a huge grin unfold onto Phil’s face. 

“I’m really glad you feel that way about me,” Phil said, throwing the top of a strawberry into the bag they were using for trash. “It would have been really embarrassing for me if you didn’t like me.”

“No shit,” Dan snickered, leaning in to kiss Phil.

“Hey,” Phil pulled away, “Just now, you said you’d never felt this way for any of your other boyfriends.” He smirked, and a bright shade of red enveloped Dan’s face. “Does that mean you think of me as your boyfriend?”

“I mean,” Dan said, still blushing, “We both like each other a lot and we’ve kissed multiple times, so yeah, I’d say we’re boyfriends. If that’s good with you, of course.”

Phil smirked. “That’s perfect with me. Kinda been wanting that for a year.”

Dan gave Phil a sympathetic look. “That must’ve sucked.”

“Yeah, but it worked out in the end.”

“True,” Dan said, moving closer to Phil so that he could rest his head on the older boy’s shoulder. 

The two boys looked out over the water, which had been turned a dark navy by the sun that was now below the horizon, leaving only a faded orange sky in its wake. They could see the moon and a few stars scattered around the atmosphere, becoming more and more visible as the sky darkened. It was peaceful. A type of peaceful that Dan and Phil rarely got to experience living with their ever-hectic schedules. Just sitting there on that blanket, feeling so small in comparison to the vast sea that was in front of them was comforting. With Phil by his side, Dan didn’t want to leave.

“So I’ve been wondering,” Phil broke Dan’s train of thought with a soft voice, “What made you act so hostile towards me in the first place?”

Dan chuckled, remembering his dumb nine year-old self. “Well, up until you came to the studio, I’d always been the best at everything I did. I got the best marks, I was the best at playing piano, I sucked at art but I was still the best in my year. When I started dancing, I was the best in my level. Being the best was what I was used to. And then you came along. It came as a shock to me, how good you were at dancing. So I did everything in my power to be better than you. I tried training harder, and when I saw you train as hard as I did, I just started being mean. Yeah, talking about my feelings with someone probably would have been the better choice but I was young and scared of losing my reputation.”

“That makes a lot of sense,” Phil nodded, taking in the new information. “I’m just glad we got that whole thing sorted out.”

“Well duh,” Dan baited, leaning further into Phil.

“Wait, how did I not know that you play piano? I’m a little hurt,” Phil teased, although it was true that he didn’t know about Dan’s ability to play the instrument.

“I just… never told you?”

“Y’know, we haven’t actually had the chance to really get to know each other. We should probably do that if we’re gonna be boyfriends.”

“Yeah,” Dan laughed, sitting up again to look at Phil, “That sounds like a pretty good idea.”

“Okay, ask me anything you want.”

Dan pondered for a second, trying to come up with a good question to ask. “Ooh, got it. What’s your favorite thing to do besides dance?”

“Easy. I make art.”

“Art? Like paintings?”

“Yeah, mostly watercolour. Sometimes I do drawings. Most of my stuff is stylized but I’ll occasionally do some realistic art.”

“Dude, that’s so cool,” Dan said excitedly, “Do you have any pictures?” 

“Yeah,” Phil replied as he grabbed his phone, which had been resting on the blanket next to him. The older boy unlocked it and went to his camera roll, opening up an album that contained pictures of his art, letting Dan scroll through them as he pleased. 

Dan could quickly see that Phil mainly painted people. There was one painting of two girls, twins, with lilac hair and glittering crescent moons on their foreheads. One painting was of a girl with teal hair that had white line drawings of koi fish swimming around her head. Another piece was of a boy with huge flowers growing all around him. Phil’s art was beautiful. Every piece was amazingly detailed and all of the colors worked perfectly together. Dan stared at the photos in awe, wondering how Phil was not only so good at dancing, but incredibly talented at painting as well. 

“These are so fucking good,” Dan marveled, “How do you have time for all this?”

“I manage to get a lot done in art class at school,” Phil said, “But I also paint at home whenever I get the chance.”

“Damn,” Dan said, handing the phone back to Phil.

“Okay. My turn to ask a question.” Phil sat in silence, coming up with something to ask. “So. If you suddenly won a million pounds, what’s the first thing you’d do with it?”

“Good question. I think I’d save most of it, donate to a few different charities, and buy a TV for my room. My best friend and I always have to watch stuff on my laptop if my older brother’s watching the TV in the lounge. It pisses us off.”

“Nice answer,” Phil nodded in approval. “Wait. haven’t I met your best friend?”

“I think he’s only seen you when he’s come to performances, but I don’t think you’ve talked to each other.”

“I could have sworn I’ve met him. Guess not, though”

“Oh wait, yes you have,” Dan said, suddenly remembering the encounter at the Hyde Park. “You two met at the rose garden.”

“Oh yeah! I was such a jackass that day, sorry about that.” Phil giggled. “I thought he was your boyfriend.”

The younger boy blushed. “Oh, God no. Anyways, I’ve got a question. What’s something on your bucket list?”

“Hmm. I really wanna travel.”

“Where?” Dan leaned back, putting his weight on his left hand and taking a sip of champagne with his left.

“All over Europe. Paris, Berlin, Milan, Vienna. I love Europe’s old architecture and culture. I also really wanna go to Tokyo someday. New York City, too. I just eventually wanna travel all over the world and see as much as I can.”

“Ugh, that sounds amazing. I really wanna travel, too. Alright, ask me something.”

Phil ripped off a piece of the baguette, thinking. “Do you believe in aliens?”

“Absolutely,” Dan said almost immediately, “How could I not? The universe is just so fucking big, there has to be life on other planets.”

Phil nodded. “I know right? I don’t know how there are people that don’t believe in them. Alright, ask me something.”

“Um, what do you like about your best friend?”

“Well,” Phil contemplated, “Her name is Ryan. I love how passionate she is about everything she does. She fully invests herself, y’know? She manages to keep her grades up while being an actress and artist at the same time. She dances a little bit, too. She’s there for me whenever I need her. You really need to meet her,” Phil said with a glimmer in his eyes, “I think you’d love her.”

Dan gave Phil a fond look. When the older boy was talking about Ryan, Dan had noticed how lovingly he was talking about his best friend. It was adorable. The younger boy set his now-empty glass down on the blanket and reached up to rest his hand on the side of Phil’s face. It was getting to be quite dark out, but Dan could see the creases around Phil’s eyes as he smiled, leaning in to kiss the brown haired boy. A breeze swept their hair into their faces and Dan giggled as Phil pulled away from the kiss to push the younger boy’s curls away from his forehead. 

The lights from the Brighton Pier danced in the distance, illuminating its surroundings with a soft, colorful glow. Waves washed up onto the shore, and then receded back into the ocean. Dan hadn’t felt this happy in a while. He was sitting under the moon next to the boy that he could now call his boyfriend, the boy he’d won the Gold Award at a renowned contemporary dance competition with. Everything was perfect. Dan knew that he and Phil would have to go back to normal life the following day, but in this moment, he didn’t care. He was living life to the fullest until he had to go back to London, and that was all that mattered.

The two boys stayed at the beach for another 45 minutes, talking about everything from future careers to their favorite dog breeds. Once they both got bored of the ocean, which was now blanketed in darkness and therefore hard to even see, they packed up everything they’d brought with them. Phil called an Uber to take them back to their hotel, and they walked hand in hand away from the waves.

~

“Alright, what now?” Phil looked up at Dan, who was drying his hair off with a towel.

The boys got back at around 10 pm, and each took showers before deciding on what to do with the rest of the night. It kind of went unsaid that they’d be sharing a bed that night, as they both flung their jackets onto Dan’s bed when they arrived back at the Hotel. For Dan, it was exhilarating, knowing that he’d be spending the night snuggled up next to Phil. He was honestly up for whatever as long as it meant cuddling with the black haired boy.

“Movie?” Dan looked over at the older boy, who was sitting on his bed in pyjamas, hair slightly damp as well. 

“Sure,” Phil said as he reached for the TV remote, “Do you have one in mind?”

“Not really, let’s just look through what movies we can watch.” Dan tossed his towel into the bathroom as Phil began to scroll through the options listed on the TV.

“Let’s see. There’s Ghostbusters, La La Land, Fantastic Beasts….” Phil listed out possible choices as Dan climbed into bed, leaning back against the pillows.

“Ooh, wait,” Dan butted in, “What about Arrival?”

Phil, who had been leaning forward, turned his head to look at the younger boy. “Yeah, I’ve heard it’s good.”

“Dude, I’ve seen it already, it’s good. No spoilers, but there’s this one point where everything you thought you knew completely changes and-”

“Calm down, let me actually _watch_ the movie.” 

“Oh, sorry,” Dan said bashfully. 

“I hope the competition will pay for this,” Phil said as he bought the movie.

“Eh, paying for it yourself will be worth it. If not, I can always pay you back.”

“Oh, shut up,” Phil countered, getting up to turn all of the lights off, “You will not.”

“Not complaining,” Dan smirked and extended his left arm across the pillows as an invitation for Phil to lay back and cuddle up next to him.

Phil positioned himself next to Dan, resting his head in the crook of the younger boy’s neck, an arm reaching across his torso. Dan wrapped the arm that Phil was now leaning against around his shoulder, pulling him in closer.

 _This is so perfect_ , Dan thought to himself as the movie started to play. _Just a month ago if anyone told me that this would be happening, I would have called them crazy. But look at me now._ He looked down at Phil and kissed the top of his head, and the older boy squeezed Dan’s torso for a second in return. A huge grin unfurled on Dan’s slightly freckled face. _Yeah, this is fucking amazing._

The movie played for a good hour or so until Dan realized that Phil had fallen asleep. _God damn it, he didn’t even get to the mindfuck part_ , Dan sighed to himself as he reached for the remote and paused the movie. He gently removed his arm from around the older boy and moved two pillows out from under his head, leaving just one to sleep on. He then threw two of his own pillows to the ground and turned the TV off; it had been the only source of light in the room since they’d started the movie.

Dan curled up next to Phil, reminiscing on the day’s events. In just one day, he’d been kissed by the person he’d had a rivalry with for years, won the Gold Award at Grasp, and become boyfriends with the aforementioned boy. He didn’t have a list of the top weirdest days in his life, but if he did, this day would definitely be on it. Just as he was drifting off into sleep, his phone lit up on the bedside table next to him, the screen illuminating the room. He groggily rolled over and reached for the device. When he saw that Liam was calling, he shot up and answered the call immediately

“Shit,” Dan said apologetically, “I was supposed to tell you how it went.”

“You were,” Liam replied, “But it’s alright ‘cause you’re still awake.”

“Fuck, so much has happened today. You probably won’t believe a lot of it.”

 

“Doubt it. So what happened?”

“Okay,” Dan said quietly, trying not to wake Phil up. “We got to the theater, did our hair and makeup, got into costume. Y’know, all the stuff dancers usually do before a show. After that, we had time to spare, so we played a game of truth or dare which was hilarious, played around on our phones, and stretched. Then-”

“Dan, I appreciate how you’re going into detail, but I just wanna know how you placed, to be honest.”

“Shut up! Something happened before the performance that you need to know about.”

“Ugh, alright.”

“So this dude came into our dressing room and told us we were about to go on, and he lead us to this hallway just outside the theater and Phil was being all quiet but I just assumed it was because he’s nervous.”

“Okay….”

“And when I asked him about it… he kissed me.”

Silence. Dan had expected Liam to freak out and start asking a thousand questions, but instead, he just heard silence. He had to check to make sure Liam hadn’t accidentally hung up. He hadn’t.

“So,” Liam finally spoke, “You’re telling me that you’ve had a feud with this boy for, what, seven years now? And just before your duet together, he kisses you.”

“Yep.”

“Well, what did you do?”

“At first, I was just confused. But I didn’t really have time to think about my feelings because that same dude came back and told us it was our turn to perform.”

“And how was that?” Liam was obviously more interested in this story now that he knew that Phil had kissed Dan. 

“It was fucking amazing, I’ve never heard an audience applaud that loudly for a piece I was in.”

“So you won Platinum?”

“I’ll get to that. So after we walk offstage and out into that hallway again, I kissed Phil. I guess I realized that the feelings I had when I was around him weren’t just platonic. It was amazing, I-”

“You really don’t need to go into detail about that.”

“Oh, right, sorry. Okay, so the award ceremony rolls around. Two dancers win Bronze, and two others win Silver. And we won Gold!”

“Dude, you totally deserved Platinum.”

“I mean, I guess this means we have to back next year with an even better dance, right?”

“Did they invite you back already?”

“No, but I assume they will. We _did_ get second place. And Phil and I are the two best dancers at the studio so unless next year’s theme is solos, we’ll both be going back.”

“Damn, your day has been wild.”

“That’s not all!”

“There’s more?” Liam sighed through the phone, “I’m tired, Dan!”

“Yes, there’s more. But long story short, Phil and I went on a date to the beach and we’re officially together now. And that’s all.”

“I guess I’ve gotta properly meet him now, don’t I?”

“Duh. And he told me about his best friend, Ryan. He said I’d love her, so we should all hang out sometime.”

“Definitely. Well, congrats on your Gold Award and enemy-turned-boyfriend. I’m gonna sleep now.”

“Alright. G’night.”

“Night,” Liam ended the phone call.

Dan smiled and set his phone back down on the bedside table. It felt good to tell someone else about his relationship with Phil. He laid back down next to the older boy, who threw an arm around his torso.

“You awake?” Dan whispered, turning onto his side to face Phil.

“Yeah,” The black haired boy said faintly. “You’re so cute, you know that?”

Dan beamed. “Thank you,” He giggled. “You are too.”

Phil leaned in and kissed Dan. The younger boy couldn’t help but smile as he wrapped his arms around Phil’s neck, tangling his hands in his raven hair, kissing him back.

Phil pulled away and rested his head on the other dancer’s forehead. “I don’t wanna have to go back to London tomorrow.” 

Dan stroked the older boy’s cheek. “Me neither. But we’ll be back next year.” He rolled onto his back, keeping one arm wrapped around Phil, who rested his head on Dan’s chest. “Good night, Phil.”

“Good night.”


	12. epilogue

“Phil,” Dan said as he parked his car in front of IGSD, “Your shirt is blue.”

“No it’s not! It’s green!” Phil grabbed his dance bag and opened up the car door, shaking his head as he got out.

“Yeah, it’s a minty color; but it’s more blue than green.”

“So you’re saying it _is_ green!”

“No, I’m saying it has green _in_ it. But it’s mostly blue, therefore your shirt is blue.”

“Y’know what, we’ll ask everyone else when class starts.”

Dan rolled his eyes fondly. “Whatever.”

It was the Thursday after _Grasp_ , and Dan and Phil were heading into their first contemporary class since the competition. Dan had picked Phil up on his way to the studio, as they wanted to arrive together. Their argument had begun when Dan had mentioned how his blue shirt brought out the color in Phil’s eyes. The older dancer quickly corrected him, saying the shirt was green. 

It was 7:27, three minutes before class was supposed to begin, so the boys were surprised when they walked into the studio to see that none of the other dancers were in the hallway outside their class. Dan looked questioningly over at Phil, who shrugged.

“Maybe my phone’s clock is wrong,” Dan said as they walked up to the room their class was held in. “That’s odd,” The younger boy noticed that the curtains on the window that looked into the room were closed even though Ida almost always kept them open. He opened the door just enough to peek his head through.

“Surprise!”

The boys jumped, startled by the sudden exclamation, but they quickly broke into grins as Dan opened the door all the way. Ida and the other dancers were grouped in the center of the room, holding a cake with gold frosting. 

“Aw, guys,” Dan was smiling so big that his eyes crinkled and his dimple was showing. “You didn’t have to do this.”

Arden scoffed. “You won Gold at England’s most esteemed contemporary competition. So yeah, we did have to do this.”

“Thank you guys so much,” Phil walked over to Ida, who was holding her arms out for a hug. Dan did the same. 

“Okay,” Ida pulled away from the hug, “Everyone grab a slice. Then come sit in a circle in the center of the room so we can talk about the competition!”

Oliver, who was holding the cake, brought it over to one of the benches near the mirrors and set it down. All of the dancers took a paper plate, napkin, and fork from Ida and cut a slice for themselves, letting Dan and Phil go first. Once everyone had gotten a piece, they all situated themselves in the middle of the room, chatting quietly amongst themselves.

“So,” Ida quieted the group, “I just wanted to say that everyone at the studio is so proud of you, Dan and Phil. I know you’ve been hearing it all week, but we are all so delighted to have you dancing at this studio. Just being invited to Grasp is such an honor. Winning second place, the Gold Award, is extraordinary. You’re two of the most talented dancers I’ve ever met, you’ll go far in life.”

The dancers all started clapping, and Dan, overcome with joy, broke into a grin. He beamed at Phil and took the older dancer’s hand, not caring about the reactions from anyone else in the room. Even though he didn’t care, he definitely did notice the small gasps and looks of confusion from the other dancers.

“Um,” said Indie, “Do you two have something that you want to tell us?”

Phil chuckled, looking fondly at Dan. “Yeah, I guess. We’re, um, together.”

Indie raised an eyebrow, Blair nodded knowingly, and Fawn lightly slapped Blair’s arm. “Did you know about this?” She hissed quietly.

“Well,” Blair responded, “I knew _something_ was up.”

“Wait,” Phil said in a shocked tone, “How could you tell?”

“I don’t know… I guess it was just the way you’d look at Dan. Definitely not platonic.”

Phil blushed as Dan realized something.

“Blair, is that why you were asking me all those questions at the playground?”

“Yeah,” Blair said sheepishly, “Sorry, I can get nosy sometimes.”

“Well,” Ida interrupted their conversation, “You won’t let this relationship get in the way of your dancing, right boys?”

“Oh, don’t worry,” Dan smirked, “I’ll still do my best to be better than him.”

“Hey!” Phil turned to look at the younger boy, but he was still beaming. 

“Alright,” Said Ida as she stood up, “Enough sitting around. Everyone throw away your plates, we’ve gotta get dancing.”

Dan picked up his now-empty plate and put his napkin and fork onto it, bringing it over to the bin in the corner of the room. He felt someone standing behind him. He turned around, and he expected to see Phil, so he was surprised when he saw Julie.

“Oh, hey.”

“Hey, Dan. I just wanted to say….” Julie paused, looking shyly down at her feet. “I’m really happy for you and Phil. I think you two are great together.”

Dan glanced over at Phil, who was sitting on one of the benches in between Alex and Fawn. The older boy was giggling hysterically about something that Dan knew he’d hear about later. The twinkling fairy lights illuminated Phil’s laughter-ridden face. Dan smiled softly.

“Yeah, I think so too.”

~

“Pizza’s here!”

“I’ll get the plates!”

“Do you guys want some Ribena? I think we’ve got some in the fridge”

Ryan, Phil’s best friend, brought the cardboard box of pizza into the lounge as Liam set the plates onto the coffee table. Dan brought out a bottle of the blackcurrant-flavored drink and four glasses as Phil sat down on the grey suede couch.

It was a Sunday, about four months after Grasp. After Dan met Ryan, Phil properly met Liam, and Liam met Ryan, it had kind of been the group’s thing to hang out on Sundays. It was the day that Dan and Phil didn’t have dance, and the four had pretty much become inseparable since they all became friends, so it worked out. They never got sick of being around each other, and Dan and Phil didn’t mind hanging out with other people so often since they’d frequently go out on dates after dance. Now, their Sundays were filled with video games, food, Netflix, and Charlie shouting at them from his bedroom to keep the volume down.

“Okay,” Ryan said as she flopped down in between Dan and Liam, grabbing a slice of pizza, “What do you guys wanna watch?” 

“Parks and Rec?” Phil suggested, looking over at the others.

“Sounds good to me.” Dan leaned to the side and took a bite of Ryan’s pepperoni pizza. She groaned and reached over to get a slice for him, mumbling about how lazy he was.

“Yeah,” Ryan set the slice onto a plate and handed it to Dan, “Parks and Rec is fine. Liam?”

“Sure. Let’s start from the beginning. I haven’t watched it in a while.”

“Then it’s settled.” Phil started playing the show on the TV and poured himself a glass of Ribena, then he leaned into Dan, who put his arm around the older boy. 

The group watched a couple episodes, laughing simultaneously at the jokes scattered throughout the show. Eventually, all the pizza and Ribena was gone, and paper plates and glasses were strewn all over the coffee table. 

“I’m gonna clean up a bit” Dan rose from his seat on the couch, “I’ll be back in a sec.”

“I’ll help,” Phil stood up too, picking up the cardboard pizza box and taking it over to the bin in the kitchen.

The boys cleaned up silently, the sounds of Leslie Knope’s voice and Ryan and Liam’s laughter filling the air. Once he was done, Dan leaned back against the fridge. Phil threw away the last paper cup and walked over to face the younger boy.

“I’m so glad we get to do this every weekend,” Phil said, taking Dan’s hands.

“Eh, I could find better uses for my time.” The younger boy giggled, unable to keep a straight face.

Phil laughed too, squeezing Dan’s hands. “Oh c’mon, you’d hate spending time away from me.”

The brown haired boy grinned. “Yeah, you’re probably right. I love you too much.”

Phil paused, trying to process what he’d just heard Dan say. When the younger boy realized what he’d said, a wash of red covered his cheeks. He let out a nervous laugh, hoping Phil would say something. But Phil didn’t say anything. Instead, the younger boy let go of Dan’s hands, grabbed Dan’s waist, and pulled him into a kiss. Dan could feel Phil smiling as they kissed, and he couldn’t help but grin too. He momentarily forgot that there were two other people just a room away. 

Dan pulled away. “Um….” He tried to find something to say, but he couldn’t quite find the right words.

“Do you know how long I’ve been waiting to hear you say that?”

Dan breathlessly shook his head with wide eyes.

“Let’s just say it’s been a long time,” Phil let out a laugh, mindlessly pushing Dan’s hair away from his forehead. 

“Then I’ll say it again. I love you.”

Phil beamed. “I love you too.”

“Are you two gonna watch the show or not?” Ryan shouted from the lounge.

Dan snickered. “We’ll be there in a sec,” He responded. 

“We should probably get back in there,” Phil said to Dan.

The younger boy let out a small sigh and leaned in to give Phil a quick kiss on the cheek. “Alright,” He said, his heart pounding. “Let’s go.”

And with that, the two boys walked hand in hand out of the kitchen. When they sat back down on the couch and Phil rested his head in the crook of the younger boy’s neck, Dan knew he wouldn’t be able to focus on the show. But he didn’t mind. Because he and Phil loved each other. And that’s all that really mattered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> well, there we go!! this took me forever to write, so until i know i can update chapters consistently, i'll be posting all of my chaptered fics at once. thank you so much for reading! <3


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